Airtel dials 'self-regulation' to address call drop issue

A day after winning the legal battle against Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in the call drop compensation case, India's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has rolled up its sleeves to get its act together to spruce up its quality of service (QoS).

The Gurgaon-based telecom service provider claimed it has imposed on itself 25% more stringent call drop benchmark of 1.5% than telecom regulator's prescribed 2%.

Calling its act self-regulatory, Airtel also announced that it will "report" its quality of service data on a quarterly and annual basis "to ensure transparency".

And if it were to ever slip on its self-imposed QoS benchmark, the number one telecom firm in terms of market share said it would contribute to the education of underprivileged children a sum calculated on basis of Rs 1 lakh for every 0.01% increase in call drop rate beyond 1.5% every month in each of its circle of operation. It has set a cap of Rs 100 crore on the amount shelled out for this purpose.

Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said the self-regulatory move emphasised the telecom company's commitment to improve its QoS.

"This self-regulation on quality of service further underlines our commitment to our customers despite the challenges of limited spectrum availability and acquisition of sites in urban areas," he said in a statement issued by the telco.

The telecom service provider's move comes after a huge debate over the rising call drop menace and its resolution, which led to the telecom regulator imposing a penalty of telcos in the form compensation of Rs 1 for every call drop, with a limit of three call drops per day. The penalty was to begin from January 1.

Telecom players fiercely opposed it and approached the Delhi High Court, which delivered a verdict against it. They raised the issue in the Supreme Court, which has ruled in their favour and struck down Trai's punitive compensation for call drops, terming it as "arbitrary and unreasonable".

Commenting on the SC's judgement on Wednesday, Mahesh Uppal, director at telecom consultancy firm ComFirst (India), said that Trai had "exceeded its brief and short-circuited the process" by trying to penalise the telcos for call drops.

"I think, Trai's heart was in the right place but clearly it had exceeded its brief and short-circuited the process. I'm hoping that this (SC's order) will persuade Trai to do what regulators elsewhere (in the world) do to deal with quality of service, which is to put information (on QoS) in the public domain. This will help users find out which operators offers good service and choose the most appropriate one. This is how market regulation works and this is how it should have worked here (India)," he said.

Uppal said the sector regulator had taken "a very whimsical approach"; "it was a very whimsical approach and virtually unenforceable. So, it is good that this method of dealing with the problem (of rising call drop) is going to be abandoned and a more market-based method will have to be resorted to".

Rajan S Mathews, director general of industry lobby body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said with the apex court striking down Trai's way of addressing the call drop issue, it was time to move "forward, along with the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Trai, to address key issues like affordable spectrum, state permission for cell towers and right of way (RoW)".

"These are the things that create the call drop and so if you address them, we are sure to address the issue of call drops for the customers," he told dna.

G Krishna Kumar, Bengaluru-based telecom executive, believes some penalty would have been "desirable".

However, he feels, the public uproar over the past 6-8 months on the call drop issue has ensured that telcos will not ignore the issue.

"The compensation for call drop was only to be seen as a deterrent for ensuring the telcos provided the right quality of service," said Krishna Kumar.

He said Malaysia has effectively implemented call drop compensation and achieved 30% reduction in call drops over three months.

"It will be sad if the telcos don't continue to invest and improve the infrastructure and strive to meet the prescribed call drop norms. We need impartial and accurate information on call drops and other quality parameters to be published on a weekly basis," said the Bengaluru-based telecom analyst.

Most telcos have announced huge investment for network expansion. Airtel, under its Project Leap, would be spending Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years to improve its mobile network.