Free voice calls no excuse for poor service: Trai chief pulls up telecom operators
02 March, 2020
If it’s free, it’s usually cheap. But Trai Chairman R S Sharma will have none of this. Telecom companies citing free voice calls to duck action on low quality of service won't pass regulatory muster, he said on Sunday, referring particularly to call drops
The top of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India head telecom organizations may have successfully challenged in the Supreme Court the penalty that the watchdog imposed for call drops, but the regulator will continue to work on improving the quality of service.
"A lot of the telcos are providing voice free, their argument is that if something is free, just how much is it possible to (Trai) punish me because I am not getting anything for that, which might not exactly be correct because they're essentially cross-subsidising," Sharma said at the Asia Economic Dialogue here.
Because the entry of Reliance Jio in to the telecom sector in 2016, voice calling has become virtually free, coming as it does as within an ‘unlimited’ package with data plans. Operators however have lost their biggest earnings stream.
Trai officials conduct standard tests on roads, trains and other busy spots and any operator found to be giving poor service is punished, he said.
Speaking at the conference co-organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Pune International Centre, Sharma also claimed that telecom tower infrastructure posed no side effects as believed by common people, and urged persons to allow cellular phone towers to be installed in on the properties.
On upcoming 5G technology, Sharma said optic fibre cable (OFC) had to be laid yet again, discussing the huge infrastructure it needs.
Sharma, who in addition has been linked to the Aadhaar project, said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt a "digital diplomacy" strategy, wherein New Delhi extends its know-how on projects just like the biometric ID or payment systems to countries in Africa and Asia.
Speaking at the same event, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) LEADER Dilip Asbe said a trial run of its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is set to be carried out at a Singapore merchant on Sunday, which will herald the internationalisation of the domestic payments system.
He said a code will be scanned by a BHIM iphone app to pay at the merchant's end in Singapore and the transaction settled.
Asbe also said the NPCI has been making adequate revenues to sustain its developmental activities.
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