Bharti Airtel, Idea skid 3% post TRAI mandate on call drops

Shares of telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Idea took a hit and fell 3 per cent in trade on Friday after the sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate consumers by one rupee for call drops with effect from January 1, 2016.

Stock of Bharti Airtel ended flat at Rs 349.85 after hitting its intraday low of Rs 340.95, down 2.98 per cent, while Idea ended 1.4 per cent down after falling as much as 2.85 per cent to Rs 148.25.

The compensation will, however, be limited to three dropped calls in a day, TRAI said in a statement on Friday.

TRAI said a telecom operator should send a message through SMS or USSD to the calling customer within four hours of the occurrence of call drop and the details of amount credited in his account. For post paid customers, the details of the credit should be provided in the next bill.

The regulator said it is of the view that the mandated regime would provide relief to the customers from the menace of call drops to some extent and spur service providers to improve quality of service.

TRAI said it will keep a close watch on the implementation of the mandate as well as the measures being initiated by service providers to minimise the problem of dropped calls and may undertake a review after six months.

There is, however, no clarity as to how telecom companies will determine if the call has been disconnected by the customer or owing to network issues.