MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND
ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c) The call drop in a mobile network can happen due to many reasons including characteristics of radio propagation for wireless communications, non-availability of sites due to acquisition problems, sealing of sites by local authorities due to fear of Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMF) from mobile radiations etc. Therefore, the occurrence of call drops is found to be common in mobile networks across the world with varying degree of occurrences. Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in India are required to ensure that the call-drop rate in their mobile networks remain within the benchmarks laid down by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
While Department of Telecommunications (DoT), under the framework developed by TRAI, works with TSPs to improve quality of service to end users, the ultimate responsibility of ensuring quality of services, including resolution of call drop issues, lies with the TSPs.
TRAI has issued “The Standards for Quality of Service for Basic (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Services (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017” effective from 1st October 2017. These Regulations have prescribed two revised parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network, viz. Call drop-rate Spatial distribution measure (benchmark = 2%) implies that at-least 90% of Cells in the network should perform better than specified 2% benchmark on at-least 90% of days. Similarly, another new parameter, Call drop-rate Temporal distribution measure (benchmark = 3%) will give confidence that on at-least 90% of Days, network performed better than specified 3% benchmark for at-least 97% of the Cells.
Revised approach for assessing Call drop-rate gives better insight into the network performance of service providers and help to highlight the specific areas and specific days when network performance was excellent or good or poor. The performance on these parameters is monitored quarterly through Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole.
As per the PMR for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services for the quarter ending March 2019 of TRAI, all TSPs are complying to Drop Call Rate (DCR) benchmarks despite rapid increase in traffic volume and more stringent benchmarks, except M/s BSNL in West Bengal.
(d) In order to address call drops, following steps have been taken:
(i) DoT has taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth for delivery of quality services. These include permitting trading/sharing/ liberalisation of spectrum, permitting passive & active infrastructure sharing, notification of Right of Way Rules 2016, making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc.
(ii) About 14.95 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by TSPs since March 2014 taking the total BTS count in the country to about 21.45 lakh in June 2019.
(iii) In order to obtain direct feedback from subscribers, DoT has launched an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) wherein, around 2.73 Crore subscribers have been individually contacted since December 2016, out of which 38.3 lakh subscribers have participated in the survey. The feedback is shared with the TSPs every week for taking corrective actions in a time bound manner. As a result, about 1 lakh individual cases of call drops have been resolved so far.
(e) No such proposal is under consideration by the Government for cancellation of licence of telecom companies.
Download PDF Files
