Lok Sabha Question No. 514 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-19
Subject: Cell Phone Quality
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: GEETHA KOTHAPALLI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.  514

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 19.07.2017

## CELL PHONE QUALITY

## 514. SHRIMATI KOTHAPALLI GEETHA:

Will the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology be pleased to state: -

- (a) whether the Government has any system in place to check the quality of cell phones quality to avoid call drops and to ensure data speed and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b) whether many unlicensed companies and untested companies without valid certificates are  manufacturing  thousands  and  lakhs  of  smart  phones  and  selling  in  the  market throwing safety measures in the air  and if so, the details thereof and  reasons therefor;
- (c) whether LTE smart phones with the facility of having 2 sims are not maintaining data speed properly and there is need to adopt a policy decision by the Government in this regard and if so , the details thereof and the steps being taken in this regard; and
- (d) whether the consumers are facing lot of difficulties after purchasing such smart phones in  the  market  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  corrective  steps  being  taken  by  the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

(a):  As per details provided by Indian Cellular Association (ICA), call drop rate and the other network parameters like Network Downtime: Percentage non-availability of mobile network in a month, percentage of calls made by subscribers and successful within operator's network, percentage of Calls with good voice quality call, etc. are monitored by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on a regular basis. These parameters help determine the quality of network  and  benchmarking  the  performance.  At  present,  internet  data  speed  or  mobile broadband  speed  offered  to  a  subscriber  is  not  measured  or  committed  by  the  network operators to the subscriber. TRAI has recently flagged a consultation process on 'Data Speed Under Wireless Broadband Plans' to help subscriber make an informed choice  and choose suitable  data  plans.  Owing  to  the  various  factors  as  pointed  in  the  Consultation  paper  like variable  number  of  concurrent  users, distance of a  user  from  the  Base  Transceiver station/NodeB/ eNodeB, peak time event or the type of application (video, text, etc.) being accessed,  a  minimal  download  speed  for  wireless/mobile  networks  is  difficult  to  be committed by an operator. However, government can ensure a better subscriber experience by asking the operators to specify Minimum download speed in the network  i.e. the worst performing speed as well as average download speed to clarify the network quality before releasing a mobile internet plan similar to ' US Broadband label'  as suggested by TRAI in its consultation paper.

(b):  Keeping in view the safety of Indian consumers, mobile phones have been notified under the 'Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirements for Compulsory Registration) Order, 2012' for mandatory safety testing of the product as per IS 13252 (Part 1):2010 at Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) recognized laboratories. The manufacturers have to  get  their  product  tested  for  safety  compliance  and  seek  registration  from  the BIS  before selling in the market place. BIS has granted 948 registrations for mobile phones as on 13th July 2017.

(c) and (d): As per details provided by TRAI, 4G enabled dual SIM smart phones have issues relating to speed. In these phones only one slot is 4G enabled, which is either pre-defined by the  manufacturer  or  which  can  be  selected  by  the  user  through  options  in  the  phone.    In general, there will be degradation in speed in case of these phones for specific scenario when both SIMs are being used at same time as the resources are shared for two SIMs. The extent of degradation may be dependent upon radio network type SIM configured by the customer and the type of services offered by the service provider such as 2G, 3G, 4G.  In case 4G SIM is  put  in  3G/2G  slot  there  will  be  relatively  higher  degradation  and  it  may  be  reduced  by putting  SIM  in  appropriate  slot.      There  could  also  be  higher  degradation  in  case  two  4G SIMs are used by the customer and one of the service provider is offering only 4G services. As such, there is a need for educating the customers about the use of slots in the dual mobile handsets.    The  extent  of  degradation  may  also  be  reduced  by  improvements  in  algorithms provided  by  chip  manufacturers.    The  mobile  handset  manufacturers  are  required  to  take appropriate  action  for  improving  algorithm  used  in  this  regard.  TRAI  had  discussed  the matter with the service providers, Industry Associations,  Cellular Operators Association of India  &  Indian  Cellular  Association  and  chipset  manufacturers.    The  Indian  Cellular Association was advised to take up the matter with the manufacturers so as to upgrade the algorithm in the handsets.  Also the service providers were advised to educate the consumers about proper use of SIM slot in dual SIM Smart Phones.

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