India's mobile operators move to head off dropped-call refunds

India's mobile operators are doing battle against the country's telecommunications regulator over plans to refund customers for dropped calls.

If the plan proceeds, from January 1 2016 Indian mobile phone subscribers would get a discount for calls dropped if it's the fault of the provider's network.

Only the caller's network is held to account by the policy – if the call-drop happens on the called party's network, there's no refund.

The carriers see a host of problems, as Indian Express reports. For example: if a call drops because the caller is inside a building, is that a network problem? Or should the caller go outside?

Indian carriers are already under pressure simply because of the huge number of users competing for service on limited spectrum. Ernst & Young India analyst Prashant Singhal told the newspaper “insufficient tower infrastructure to cater for the ever rising demand is leading to poor quality of service and call drops”.

Since customers have no visibility into the network anyhow, consumer advocates like Telecom Watchdog reckon the refunds will almost never be paid. The NGO estimates that an operator would fork out a maximum of 100 million rupees – around US$1.5 million – in any given year.

The operators are planning to meet with the regulator this week to try to head off the move, or at least to be given some leeway. The Economic Times says the carriers, through their lobby the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), want a two per cent allowance of call drops before penalties apply.

At present, as many as one in eight calls made in India drops and the issue makes local newspapers as it is considered an impediment to commerce. And just plain annoying. ®