Call Drops

Taking a serious note of call drops related complaints and service quality issues, regulator Trai on Friday directed telecom service providers to submit service quality reports for each State and Union Territory. Now, telecom companies will have to report more granular data that will help identify patchy networks and problem areas upfront. In another move that would cheer telecom consumers, the regulator has released draft regulation on review of 'The Quality of Service (Code of Practice for Metering and Billing Accuracy) Regulations, 2023' and draft guidelines. In a statement, Trai said that accuracy of metering and billing of telecom services has been a prime focus of the regulator to protect the interest of consumers. Meanwhile, it has also issued "directions to all telecom service providers to submit Quality of Service (QoS) reports for each State and Union Territory(UT)". Last week, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) held a review meeting on call drops with telc

Mobile operators' body COAI on Tuesday said that sector regulator's instructions to telcos to report call drop data even state-wise entails several administrative and execution "difficulties" on ground, and that reporting should continue at LSA (Licensed Service Area) level. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), last week at a review meeting, asked telecom operators to report call drop data at state level too, amid rising instances of service quality issues and consumer complaints. The industry association COAI on Tuesday said it has urged Trai to "reconsider" the move and continue with LSA-wise reporting, SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI (Cellular Operators' Association of India), told reporters. COAI's members including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Kochhar said that telecom operators fully "support giving the best services to subscribers with whatever it takes", but pointed to "administrative problems" that would arise in reporting call drop data .

Telecom regulator TRAI has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, irked by call drops and patchy networks. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across the country. So far, as many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality. In a statement on .

Telcos have assured that once the mobile handsets are synchronised with the 5G technology, the quality will improve

Vodafone Idea had the highest data download rates, across both 3G and 4G networks in the most number of cities

Financial disincentive of Rs 47.5 lakh has been imposed on government-owned telecom firm BSNL, Rs 56 lakh on Tata Teleservices, Rs 34 lakh on Bharti Airtel

The minister however said that telecom service providers (TSPs) should ensure that call drop rate in their mobile networks remain within the benchmarks laid down by regulator Trai

The December quarter marked the first instance of companies reporting their network data under the new formula

The exercise will be spread over 18 days and is likely to be completed by mid-March

Will operators show some imagination to mitigate the relentless call-drop problem?

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said spectrum scarcity can no longer be cited as reason given ongoing consolidation in industry

The DoT had planned to meet Trai to discuss new regulations on mobile service quality that it implemented from October 1

A meeting between telcos and TRAI would enable both sides to "understand" the results of new QoS parameters: COAI

We have set a target to reduce it by another 8% by the end of this year, says Sinha

He added that the government aimed to bring it down further by year-end

The issue assumes significance as telecom operators had blamed mobile handset quality for call drops

He said that the govt and Trai are taking all possible steps with the help of telecom operators to address the problem

Call drops are rampant in the country with telecom operators of late making some effort to improve the situation

Sharing figures, Sinha said Airtel has put up 22,000 BTS, Idea set up 25,382 BTS, and Vodafone set up 13,870 BTS

The agreement will enhance coverage for both Vodafone and BSNL customers