TRAI withdraws complaints against Airtel, Idea and Loop - smsgatewayhub

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Friday withdrew its complaint against three major telecom players -- Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Loop Mobiles -- for violation of its regulations from a Delhi court, which was informed that they have taken remedial measures.

The TRAI had filed the complaint against the firms for rejecting number portability requests from their subscribers in violation of the TRAI regulations.

TRAI counsel told the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav that subsequent to the filing of the complaints, the companies had written a letter to the Authority stating that they have taken sufficient corrective and remedial measures to ensure that such violations do not occur in future.

The telecom regulator said that considering the contents of the letter, it has decided not to pursue the complaint and the same is being withdrawn.

The withdrawal of the complaint came on the day the top officials of the three firms were to appear before the court in response to its summonses issued on March 21.

The complaint before the CMM court against Airtel, Idea and Loop concerned alleged violation of norms that permitted subscribers to switch over from one service provider to another without change of their mobile phone numbers.

Another complaint against Bharti Airtel pending before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi was also withdrawn Friday.

The complaint pertained to alleged violations of TRAI norms of terminating the service of a customer within 24 hours of receipt of request and refund of security deposit within 60 days of termination.
The complaint was withdrawn as TRAI said the company had in a letter informed that it has redressed the grievances of its customer and has taken remedial measures.

The telecom regulator had in its complaint said after it launched mobile number portability in January 2011, it had directed all service providers including Bharti Airtel, Idea and Loop Mobiles to furnish compliance of various provisions of the Telecom Portability Regulations.

When TRAI ascertained the correctness of compliance (for number portability) by the three firms and obtained data pertaining to porting requests (to them) for a given period, it found certain requests had been illegally rejected.

In its complaint against Bharti Airtel, TRAI said the firm had rejected porting requests from its subscribers on grounds of "subscribers having withdrawn porting requests" and "contractual obligations".

In its complaint against Idea Cellular, TRAI said the company had on February 9, 2011 said it fully complies with the TRAI regulations on cell number portability.

It was, however, found that Idea had rejected 67 porting requests in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and various other circles on various grounds, including those of contractual obligations, UPC mismatch and outstanding dues and failed to furnish information with regard to rejections due to contractual obligations.

Regarding Loop Mobiles, TRAI said the company rejected certain porting requests in Mumbai circle under the category of "act of God" and certain on ground of "contractual obligations" and "outstanding payment dues".