DoT urges telcos to quickly fix call drops

Chaired by Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman, DoT officials met representatives from the three telcos, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on Dec 28.

They discussed rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, and deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality.

The discussion focused on identifying policy and operational measures that can help telcos to improve the quality of telecom services in the country.

Discussion ranged from the issue of interference caused by illegal boosters to ironing out some remaining Right of Way issues.

The meeting, which lasted for almost two hours, also saw telcos making detailed presentations on the current level of service quality and benchmarks.

While telecom regulator TRAI looks at service quality norms, the DoT’s parley with telecom operators was more about identifying problem areas and seeking inputs on policy measures and operational interventions that can facilitate better service quality in the country.

DoT will soon send a consultation paper to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on the matter as it seeks more QoS parameters. The much-awaited updated norms will be announced via executive orders after TRAI sends back its inputs.

DoT so far has been unable to do much on this matter, although the minister has been emphasising regularly. At a recent press conference also, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that telecom service quality parameters could be made more stringent and tighter, possibly to the extent of 3-4 times. And the industry will have to improve telecom service quality significantly, as the government too has done its bit by ushering major reforms in the sector.

The telcos on their part meet the benchmark for most QoS parameters by averaging performance in an entire service area.

Existing quality parameters include network availability, accessibility of connection establishment, ease of connection maintenance, and point of interconnection congestion.

CT Bureau