India’s Telecom Ministry is considering making a platform that will take direct feedback from people on call drops to gauge the situation and take necessary steps accordingly. The move follows the launch of "Twitter Seva" by the minister on the social media network to address complaints and concerns of users of telecom and postal services.
Currently, the complaints lodged through Twitter Sewa by users are made available to the ministry officials and they categorise these complaints as immediate, mid-term and long-term complaints. The service allows the telecom department to respond in real-time to complaints, assign it to relevant officers, assign criticality and track the complaints.
The new full-fledged standalone feedback platform will be ready in the next one month, according to Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, who recently warned operators of action, including penalty, for call drops.
Sinha, while announcing the platform during a recent event in national capital, said that call drops “should be wiped out from the country.” "Consumers are of paramount importance. They should not be affected," the minister added.
Call drops figures among the top customer issues with telcos in several Indian cities. Indian telecom operators have been lambasted heavily regularly on the issue of call drops.
Earlier this week, the Minister met telecom operators to gauge the progress made under the 100-day action plan on call drops. Telcos had committed to set up 60,000 base stations as part of this action plan, and one lakh base stations over a one year period.
Also read: GSM telecom operators install 1,29,101 base stations in four months to tackle call drops
Sinha expressed satisfaction at the progress made by companies in installing base stations for improving connectivity. COAI, the telecom industry body of GSM operators, had said the industry had set up about 129,101 BTS, doubling the target of 60,000, in four months. The telecom industry had committed Rs 12,000 crore for adding more cell sites.
