THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c) The year-wise details of the complaints on Call Drop re TRAI are given below:
Service Provider Details of Complaints
2013 2014 2015 (Upto 30.6.2015)
Aircel 0 4 1
Airtel 8 11 31
BSNL 0 14 10
IDEA 28 9 10
Loop 0 2 0
MTNL 0 0 1
MTS 0 0 2
RCom 4 9 8
RTL 0 0 3
Tata 3 2 1
Telewings 0 0 0
Vodafone 4 11 17
Call drop in a network can occur due to various reasons including insufficient coverage due to paucity of mobile towers and handover failure due to network congestion on account of more users in a particular area.
TRAI has laid down the Quality of Service parameters and benchmarks for basic service (wireline) and cellular mobile telephone service through the standards of Quality of Service for Basic Service (wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations 2009. As per these regulations, TRAI has been monitoring the performance of service providers, against the quality of service benchmarks for the various parameters through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports. The performance on call drop is accessed through two parameters viz. call drop rate (benchmark = 2%) and worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop (benchmark = 3%).
As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending March, 2015, for cellular mobile telephone services 2G, non-compliance with the benchmarks is observed in respect of the call drop parameters (1) “Call drop rate” (benchmark = 2%) in 2 service areas of BSNL and in 1 service area of M/s Aircel (2) “worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop (benchmark = 3%) (16 service areas of Aircel and 5 service areas of BSNL);
As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending March, 2015 for cellular mobile telephone services 3G services, all the service providers are meeting the benchmark for the parameter circuit switched voice drop rate(benchmark = 2%). However, in respect of the parameter “Worst affected cells having more than 3% Circuit Switched Voice Drop Rate”, Aircel is not meeting the benchmark in 11 service areas and BSNL is not meeting the benchmark in 4 service areas.
The performance of service providers against the benchmark for Call drop is monitored by TRAI. In this regard, meetings have been held by TRAI with service providers for improving performance. According to service providers, the common reasons attributed to call drops are equipment faults, frequent load shedding in some circles, difficulty in site acquisition for new sites, removal/shutting of existing mobile towers due to radiation concerns by various authorities/RWA, spectrum crunch in certain circles and restrictions near international border. Recently, with the re-allocation of spectrum in some of the service areas the service providers had to re-align their network to the new spectrum. This has also resulted in call drop in some of the networks recently.
TRAI had undertaken drive Test of the network of all service providers, Secondary Switching Area(SSA) wise in the entire country in one year and these reports were shared with the service providers for improving quality of service in the areas where the performance is poor. Recently, TRAI had undertaken drive test of network of service providers in Mumbai and Delhi service area. TRAI had also held discussions with the service providers on these issues of call drop in their service area to identify the problem areas and to explore solution to the problem. Accordingly, the service providers have been advised to take further action for improving quality of service.
For ensuring quality of service, TRAI is closely monitoring the performance of service providers against the quality of service benchmarks. TRAI has been perusing with service providers for improving Quality of Service and in this regard regular interactions are held with the service providers. TRAI has also engaged independent agencies for auditing and assessing the quality of service and surveys are being done regularly through independent agencies to assess the customer perception of service. The results of the audit and assessment of quality of service and surveys are published for the information of stakeholders, which also force the service providers to improve the quality of service.
(d) to (f) Yes, Madam. DoT has asked TRAI to give its views as to whether the customers can be compensated for dropped calls.
Details of the number of mobile towers installed and dismantled across the country during the last three years and the current year; TSP-wise are being collected and will be laid on the table of the House.
Meetings with Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have been held in April as well as second week of July 2015 on the call drop issue, wherein they have been asked to take immediate measures at address issues of call drops by Radio Frequency Optimization; and installation of new sites & in-building solutions as per requirement so as to address the menace of call drop. In addition, Union Minister of Urban Development and Chief Ministers of States have been requested for facilitating installation of mobile towers and in-building solutions in Government buildings so as to ensure better mobile coverage and quality of service.
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