Penal powers to Trai no solution, says DoT secy
NEW DELHI: June 11, 2016, DHNS
Amid the Trai seeking penal powers to punish telecom operators for call drops, Telecom Secretary J S Deepak on Friday said penal powers cannot be “one and final solution” for call drops and the firms have committed Rs 12,000 crore to install new towers to check this problem.
Deepak said the government will take a view on the Trai demand for more powers, but in his personal opinion a person cannot be sent to jail for every call drop.
“Business as usual cannot happen (after this). I am not sure penal power will be one and final solution to this. In my personal opinion I do not agree that for every call drop a person has to be sent to jail. That's my personal view. It is more sophisticated and more difficult”, he said.
The secretary, who held a meeting with CEOs of the telecom companies here to discuss the range of issues including call drops menace, told reporters that the DoT is studying the Trai recommendation. “The government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and industry has responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs 20 lakh which is around Rs 12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” he said.
Representatives of all telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel chief for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, Vodafone India head Sunil Sood, Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania and Reliance Jio Infocomm MD Sanjay Mashruwala, were present in the meeting.
In the meeting, each operator presented his 100-day plan for improving service quality and raised issues hampering improvement in the networks.
Empowering Trai
After its earlier direction asking telecom firms to pay consumer for each dropped call was quashed by the Supreme Court, the Trai has asked the government to amend laws to give it powers for imposing fine of up to Rs 10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives.
However, mobile operators have opposed the Trai’s move and termed that as draconian.
DH News Service
Deepak said the government will take a view on the Trai demand for more powers, but in his personal opinion a person cannot be sent to jail for every call drop.
“Business as usual cannot happen (after this). I am not sure penal power will be one and final solution to this. In my personal opinion I do not agree that for every call drop a person has to be sent to jail. That's my personal view. It is more sophisticated and more difficult”, he said.
The secretary, who held a meeting with CEOs of the telecom companies here to discuss the range of issues including call drops menace, told reporters that the DoT is studying the Trai recommendation. “The government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and industry has responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs 20 lakh which is around Rs 12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” he said.
Representatives of all telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel chief for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, Vodafone India head Sunil Sood, Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania and Reliance Jio Infocomm MD Sanjay Mashruwala, were present in the meeting.
In the meeting, each operator presented his 100-day plan for improving service quality and raised issues hampering improvement in the networks.
Empowering Trai
After its earlier direction asking telecom firms to pay consumer for each dropped call was quashed by the Supreme Court, the Trai has asked the government to amend laws to give it powers for imposing fine of up to Rs 10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives.
However, mobile operators have opposed the Trai’s move and termed that as draconian.
DH News Service
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