Adding to the thrust of call drop issue is another report from Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, which said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has received the maximum number of complaints on call drops against Airtel during 2015 (up to June 31). This is despite of the fact that Airtel was found to be the best service provider that comply with the Quality of Service (QoS) benchmark for call drop rate prescribed by the government (in Drive Test conducted in Mumbai).
According to the written reply to Lok Sabha, Minister pointed out that there were a total of 31 complaints of call drops against Airtel. Vodafone is the next provider on the list, with 17 complaints. There were 10 complaints against BSNL and Idea Cellular. Against Reliance, there were nearly eight complaints, two against MTS and one against Aircel and Tata.
The quality of service (QoS) benchmarks for call drop rate, which as per TRAI norms should be less than 2 percent.
"According to service providers, the common reasons attributed to call drops are equipment faults, frequent load shedding in some circles, difficulty in site acquisition, shutting of existing mobile towers due to radiation concerns and restrictions near international border," the Minister said.
He said that the TRAI is monitoring the performance of each operator. Meetings are also being held with the operators for enhancing their performance. Department of Telecom also stays vigilant on the issue, that it has asked TRAI to find suitable ways to compensate people for call drops.
"Meetings with telecom service providers 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 to address issues of call drops by radio frequency optimization, installation of new sites and in-building solutions," he added.
