Question : POOR MOBILE SERVICE OF BSNL

(a) whether complaints regarding failure of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to provide regular and good quality mobile service to its subscribers has been received recently from some of the States;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) the reasons for failure of BSNL to upgrade its services, despite the repeated complaints from different States; and

(d) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the quality of mobile service of the BSNL and to upgrade them to the international level?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI A. RAJA)

(a) to (d) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT OF BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.154 FOR 26TH NOVMBER 2007 REGARDING POOR MOBILE SERVICE OF BSNL.

(a)&(b) Sir, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based Cellular Mobile Telephone Service of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is working satisfactorily and in general meeting the Quality of Service benchmarks prescribed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. However, certain complaints have been received regarding congestion, coverage, internet access, BTS(Base Transceiver Station) failures, etc.

(c)&(d) BSNL is continuously augmenting its Cellular Mobile Network progressively for enhancing coverage, Capacity and Quality of Service (QoS) and has target for providing 88.5 lakh connections in the year 2007-08. Efforts are made for speedy redressal of complaints. BSNL is optimizing its network continuously for its performance and monitoring of the network has also been strengthened to ensure performance as per the QoS parameters prescribed by TRAI.

Presently, BSNL is providing GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) Services over its Cellular Mobile Network. Introduction of 3G mobile services are proposed from next year subject to grant of Spectrum.