The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a plea of two cellular operator associations challenging Delhi High Court order. Earlier this week, the high court had upheld the decision of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks.<br/><br/>High Court allowed telecom regulator to implement its decision from January 1, 2016. The court order came while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance. <br/><br/>The telcos had termed the TRAI's regulation as "arbitrary and whimsical". They contended that providing compensation to consumers amounted to interfering with companies' tariff structure which could be done only by order, not regulation. The high court, while brushing aside the contention of telcos, had also observed that the compensation for call drops was capped at Rs 3 a day. Court said that TRAI's regulation mandated only compensating the calling consumer not the receiver. Earlier, TRAI had told the high court that consumers have a right to get compensated for call drops. They said that this was different from the quality of service guidelines that cellular service providers have to follow under the licence conditions.

The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a plea of two cellular operator associations challenging Delhi High Court order. Earlier this week, the high court had upheld the decision of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks.<br/><br/>High Court allowed telecom regulator to implement its decision from January 1, 2016. The court order came while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by Cellular Operators Association of India, a body of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and 21 telecom operators, including Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and Reliance. <br/><br/>The telcos had termed the TRAI's regulation as "arbitrary and whimsical". They contended that providing compensation to consumers amounted to interfering with companies' tariff structure which could be done only by order, not regulation. The high court, while brushing aside the contention of telcos, had also observed that the compensation for call drops was capped at Rs 3 a day. Court said that TRAI's regulation mandated only compensating the calling consumer not the receiver. Earlier, TRAI had told the high court that consumers have a right to get compensated for call drops. They said that this was different from the quality of service guidelines that cellular service providers have to follow under the licence conditions.