The Indian telecom operators are doing their best to maintain the uptime of networks which lets everybody in need of the network to access it, the director of Cellular Association of India (COAI) Rajan Mathews said. COAI, the industry body for telecom operators like Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, has urged users to use their data more responsibly while pushing the government to issue additional spectrum. COAI has also pushed the streaming companies to default the video content to standard definition (SD) as telecom operators have seen a surge in users due to COVID-19 lockdown. Mathews while responding to users’ complaints of patchy networks said that COAI has “been doing various things.”
Operators Doing Their Best
“We just want to highlight that we are in very critical time in our country and emergency situations apply all over,” Mathews said. “Our operators are doing their best to do the first thing that is most important which is maintain the uptime of our networks, so that everybody who needs it has access and can use it.”
Mathews said that the secondary issue is the quality of networks which includes the speeds that users experience. The COAI is said to have taken various steps including pushing the streaming players to switch the default video content to SD which could ease the congestion of the network.
“We are working to ensure that we can augment the capacity of our networks by emergency situations like moving in temporary towers wherever that is possible, we are working with municipalities,” Mathews said.
More Work From Home Users Could Be Using Cellular Data
While COAI has been pushing the government for additional spectrum, it has also asked users to pick off-peak hours to perform certain tasks which could free networks for those in need.
However, the data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for a period ending December 2019 suggests that only 19.14 million in India have wireline broadband connections. Trai’s data indicates that a large number of work from home users will have to rely on the cellular data connection for performing their professional work. While COAI insists that the telecom operators are doing their best, users including those on wireline broadband networks have complained of patchy speeds.
