The companies have been asked to pay consumers Rs 1 for every call drop on their network. (Representational image)
The Supreme Court today refused to suspend an order that asked telecom companies to compensate users for call drops.
The companies had asked for an interim stay on having to pay consumers Re 1 for every call drop on their network and compensate for up to three calls a day.
The court has asked the Centre and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI to respond to the appeal of these companies against the order and will take up the case on March 10.
Telecom companies have called the compensation order coercive.
Announcing the rules in October, TRAI had said that service providers would have to send SMSes to customers on the amount credited within four hours of a call drop.
A call drop means a voice call which after being successfully established, is interrupted before it is completed.
The high court had, earlier this week, upheld the October 16, 2015 decision of TRAI making it mandatory for cellular operators to pay consumers one rupee per call drop experienced on their networks, subject to a cap of Rs 3 a day.
The telecom operators had moved the high court seeking quashing of TRAI's regulation contending that it was a "knee-jerk reaction" which penalised them without proving any wrong-doing.
TRAI had termed the call drops as a "pervasive problem", saying it amounted to "harassment" of consumers as well as breach of contract that telcos had with subscribers.
TRAI had on December 22, last year told the court that no coercive steps would be taken against telecom firms till January 6 for not complying with the call drop compensation norms.
In August last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that call drops directly impact the common man and need to be fixed urgently led to massive efforts by the Centre to tackle the problem.