Call drop issue: Videocon welcomes SC judgement, assures that efforts to reduce call drops will continue

Mobile operator Videocon Telecom Wednesday welcomed Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Trai regulation making it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers for call drops, but added that efforts of operators to resolve the problem will continue. “From operators’ point of view, it (SC verdict) is a good judgement and operators will be very happy with it,” Videocon Telecom’s Director and CEO Arvind Bali said Chandigarh. However, he added that telecom operators will continue with their efforts to improve their services to resolve the problem of call drops. “Inspite of the fact that this judgement has come, operators’ efforts to improve services to ensure that calls do not drop will continue because private operators want that customers should be provided with quality services,” Bali said, adding that telecom operators were willing to spend on improving infrastructure. The Supreme Court Wednesday struck down the Trai regulation making it mandatory for telecom companies to compensate subscribers for call drops, holding it as “arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent”. Bali further said that Connect Broadband, part of the Videocon Group, has invested Rs 118 crore on up gradation of optical fibre network for providing Internet services at higher speed. “The company has invested in latest transmission equipment and ring up gradation to enable users to access applications simultaneously on small and large screen devices seamlessly without buffering,” he said. “The rise in number of Internet based applications has increased the need for speed and data. The monthly data consumption of an average user has increased by 100 percent in last two years to 27GB and it is expected to double in next one year. Keeping this in mind, Connect Broadband has invested heavily in network,” he said. Connect Broadband, which operates in Punjab, Chandigarh and Panchkula (Haryana), provides telecom services like voice telephony, wireline and wireless Internet services. He further said Videocon Group company Infodart, which is a business-oriented IT services provider to various industry segments, will set up a centre in Mohali. “It will perform back-end job of IT services,” he said, adding that three offices of Infordart will be opened in Dubai, Iran and China or Hong Kong. PTI