The government has proposed to evaluate the severity of call dropping problem and may take the decision to cancel licenses of telecom companies.
How is call dropping regulated in India?
As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), "call drop represents the service provider's inability to maintain a call once it has been correctly established”.
It means the call is dropped or interrupted prior to its normal completion by the user, the cause of the early termination being within the service provider's network.
The TRAI has been monitoring the performance of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) through quarterly performance monitoring reports submitted by them.
What are the parameters for assessing TSP performance?
TRAI has issued “The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017".
These regulations have prescribed two stringent parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network.
Spatial Distribution measure- It prescribe that at least 90% of cellphones in the network should perform better than the benchmark figure of ≤ 2% on at least 90% of days.
Temporal Distribution measure- It prescribe that at least 97% of cellphones in the network should perform better than the benchmark figure of ≤ 3% on at least 90% of days.
What if the TSP does not comply with the benchmark figures?
Challenges in meeting the benchmark
New site restrictions
Electromagnetic field (EMF) issues
Fibre cut
Theft cases
Boundary and fringe cells
GSM spectrum non-availability
Interference
High mountainous terrains and remote areas
For Radio Link Technologies (RLT), there may be cases wherein the drop may be for a short period of time such as the user taking a lift or passing through a tunnel.
Some service providers resort to masking technology that prevents a call from disconnecting despite there being poor or no signal.
The TSP have to explain their stance should if they have not been able to meet the benchmark figures.
After considering the explanations, TRAI imposes financial disincentives for failing to comply with the same as per the revised graded Financial Disincentives (FD) structure introduced in 2017.
The disincentives vary according to the deviation from the specified benchmark.
What policy initiatives were taken to deal with the call drop problem?
Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s policy initiatives
Permitting trading
Sharing
Liberalisation of spectrum
Permitting passive and active infrastructure sharing
Making government land/buildings available for installations of towers
Feedback- The telecom regulator has an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) for obtaining direct feedback from subscribers on call drops.
The feedback is shared with the TSPs for taking corrective actions in a time bound manner.
