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Will TRAI issue guidelines?- E- Forum of The Consumers Collective 
Submit Complaint..Due to lax enforcement on the part of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the telecom companies have earned an unfair revenue of Rs 20,000 crore last year out of a total income of Rs
60,000 crore from 67 million customers in the country, said R Desikan,trustee, Consumers Association of India.
There were no regulatory guidelines from TRAI with regard to the network coverage, call blockage, voice quality, drop calls, roaming and call durations, because of which service providers had started exploiting consumers with unfair practices, he said. Addressing a press meet yesterday, Desikan said drop calls were lines that got terminated prematurely without the consent of the call-maker or the receiver, due to the inefficient operating system for which the customers were charged for them.
Drop calls should never be charged to the customers and equivalent free time should be provided by the operator for the hardship caused to customers. In countries like Singapore phone calls that terminated less than five minutes never get charged at all, said Radha Krishnan, advisor, CAI. 'When a subscriber lands into a roaming zone, he gets attached to another network for signal for which they have to pay for it. This is an unfair practice and should be discouraged as it is not the fault of the customers.'
Subscribers have to register in the Lost Registry where IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number was assigned to each owner and the location of the lost phones could be traced whenever
calls were made to be restored to the original subscribers. Around 7,000 to 8,000 handsets were being lost or stolen in the country annually and the Lost Registry would discourage theft of handsets, he
said.
Desikan asked the TRAI to issue guidelines to the service providers on network coverage, voice quality, detailed billing and indirect charges.
'A detailed letter would be sent to Department of Consumers Affairs. If they failed to take action, a public interest litigation would be filed in the Supreme Court,' Desikan added.
