In what should be considered as a strong message to telcos in the country, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has said the industry couldn't offer any excuses in terms of call drops. DoT urged the sector won't provide any explanations for problems in installing new mobile towers for rising call drops and even asked them to tackle the issue at the earliest. Earlier today, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan in an interview said the DoT would meet the industry leaders once the Trai report on call drops comes out after January 21.
Telcos will be measuring call drops based on the new call drop formula implemented by Trai. She accepted that mobile operators do face difficulties while setting up new towers, but that won't be considered as an excuse for call drops and stated that more investments should be made by them to upgrade the infrastructure.
"The government is very concerned about call drop (and service) quality. We want to convey to the industry that the situation can’t continue and they have to take corrective steps," said Aruna Sundararajan earlier today to reporters at PTI.
Customers across the nation are struggling with call drops, and as per the new call norms, a telco may face a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh if the call drops are severe on its network.
She also added that “the industry has to get its act together. They have to earmark more investments into infrastructure.” There are some states in India where there is no proper telecom infrastructure.
Trai's new call drop rules are effective from October 1, 2017, meaning telcos will be releasing the new call drop reports until December 31, 2017, as per the new norms itself. Trai already asked telcos to submit the network related data for checking service quality under the new parameters.
As stated, the new norms will handle telcos up to Rs 10 lakh penalty, and the new call drop data will be measured at a mobile tower level, instead of the earlier telecom circle level.
