Question : CALL DROP PROBLEM

(a) whether the consumers incur financial loss on account of call drops;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the action being taken by the Government in this regard;

(c) whether the consumers are compensated or proposed to be compensated for the losses due to call drops; and

(d) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI MILIND DEORA)

(a) to (d) Madam, as per section 11(1) (b) (v) of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) 1997 ( amended), one of the function of TRAI is to “lay-down the standards of quality of service to be provided by the service providers and ensure the quality of service and conduct the periodical survey of such service provided by the service providers so as to protect interest of the consumers of telecommunication services”.

The Call drop can happen due to inadequate coverage, problems with the quality of signal including interference, network congestion and network failures. Customer moving from a coverage area to a non-coverage area may also experience call drop.

TRAI is monitoring the performance of service providers against the quality of service benchmarks for call drop viz Call Drop Rate [Benchmark-= 2%] and “% of worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop (Call drop)” [Benchmark-= 3%]. As per the Performance Monitoring Report submitted by the service providers for the quarter ending June 2012, TRAI has observed that the Call drop rate benchmark is met by almost all the operators. In the case of parameter “% of worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop (Call drop)” also most of the service providers are meeting the benchmark, as per TRAI. Wherever deficiencies in meeting the benchmark are observed, the matter has been taken up with the service providers by TRAI for taking time bound action to address the deficiency.

As regards financial loss to customers on account of call drops, the charges are levied to customers upto the duration of the call and rounded to the pulse rate as per his tariff plan. With the per second pulse rate plans being offered by the operators, there will not be any loss to consumers in such cases as they are charged only for the actual duration of the call.