To curb incidents of call drops, telecom operators have started
taking steps such as adopting in-building solutions, installation of
more sites in addition to augmenting the radio frequency resources.
The telecom operators have submitted their action taken report on
reducing call drops to department of telecom wherein they have given
details about network optimisation, addition of new sites in problem
areas, conduction of drive tests, among others.
"Action taken reports have been received from most of the access
service providers. The operators have started taking steps to curb call
drops," a department of telecom (DoT) official told PTI.
The official said that DoT is examining the reports to see if steps
taken are satisfactory or need further action. As per the report
submitted by Bharti Airtel for Delhi, it has added 100 2G and 100 3G
sites since last one month apart from capacity addition on various
sites.
The company has also installed in-building solution in North Block while four sites have been added in Lutyens zone.
Vodafone added 190 new sites in Delhi in June-July.
Idea Cellular added 3,700 2G sites in the last four months across the
country. Other operators, including RCom, SSTL, Uninor, Tata
Teleservices are also taking action on the matter.
The DoT is undertaking special audit to assess the coverage and
quality of service of all mobile operators in the metro cities to assess
the gravity of call drops problem.
Telecom secretary Rakesh Garg undertook a meeting with mobile
operators in April to review the issues related to quality of service in
telecom networks across the country.
A recent report by TRAI has said most of the telecom operators in
Delhi and Mumbai are not meeting the prescribed standards regarding call
drops.
DoT had asked the operators to submit the action taken report on call
drops by 31st July. An independent drive test was conducted by TUV SUD
on June 23-24 in Mumbai and July 9-11 in Delhi which revealed that only
Tata (CDMA) in Delhi and Airtel in Mumbai were meeting the benchmark
prescribed for call drops.
Doing some plain speaking on call drops, telecom minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad had asked mobile operators to walk the extra mile to
reinforce their systems as they have enough spectrum to provide services
without interruption.
The minister had asked the sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) to suggest a disincentive mechanism to tackle
the problem.