The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has conducted drive tests in 12 cities and surrounding areas of those cities. TRAI included the following destinations in its test – Sangli, Tumkur, Rajkot, Nellore, Salem, Visakhapatnam, Udaipur, Indore, Kanpur, Meghalaya, Dehradun, and Gopalganj. The regulatory body also included two highways – Indore to Bhopal and Dehradun to Meerut for this test.
TRAI assessed the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of all telecom service providers (TSPs) in the above-mentioned regions. Things such as coverage, call setup success rate (CSSR), Drop call rate, block call rate, handover success rate, and Rx Quality were assessed. The regulatory body also assessed the performance of data services which included download and upload throughputs, video streaming delay, web browsing delay and latency.
At a time when the tariffs are going up, the consumers can’t be served with the same quality of services that they have been provided when the tariffs were super low. These tests from TRAI assess which telco is giving at-par services and which isn’t.
TRAI has Conducted Drive Tests Before as Well!
This is not the first time that TRAI has conducted drive tests. It has happened before in multiple cities, and TRAI keeps on doing this at regular intervals to keep the operators in check. It is pretty important to do this to keep the rights of the consumers protected.
The quality of telecom services provided in India has to go up significantly in order to justify the growing tariffs. If that doesn’t happen, the level of customer dissatisfaction would go up. The telecom infrastructure in India is still developing at a fast pace now because of the steps the government has taken. Things such as the GatiShakti portal have made it easy for the RoW (right-of-way) applications to be processed faster. The Indian government is also working on another set of relief measures to help out the telecom sector. Hopefully, consumers across the country can get strong network coverage.
