Lok Sabha Question No. 2333 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-01
Subject: Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: PROF. RAM SHANKAR, (ADV.) JOICE GEORGE, AJAY (TENI) MISRA, Karan Singh Yadav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2333 TO BE ANSWERED ON 1 ST  AUGUST, 2018

## CALL DROP

## †2333. DR. RAM SHANKAR KATHERIA:

ADV. JOICE GEORGE: SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI:

- DR. KARAN SINGH YADAV:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) the main reason for the problem of call drop in the country;
- (b) whether the Government has received numerous petitions/representations regarding the said issue and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to impose any penalty on telecom companies in view of increasing number of call drops and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether the Government has formulated any scheme to resolve the problem of call drop and if so, the details thereof;
- (e) whether the Government proposes to install additional mobile towers in the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) whether the said problem is common in BSNL and MTNL networks and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) Call drop in any mobile network may be due to variety of reasons, which inter alia , include:
- (i) poor  radio  coverage  in  certain  localities  on  account  of  non-availability  of space  for  tower-sites  or  sealing  of  existing  sites  by  local  authorities/ resident welfare associations/ owners due to fear of radiations;
- (ii) overall  change  in  pattern  of  traffic,  especially  exponential  growth  in  data traffic;
- (iii) non availability of 24x7 power resulting in shutdown of sites;
- (iv) lack  of  regular  Network/  Radio  Frequency  (RF)  optimization  efforts  by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).

Network Optimisation is a process through which different parameters in a mobile network such as Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) power, neighbour definition, electrical & mechanical tilt of the antenna, etc. are required to be modified/ optimized in order to improve the coverage area of a BTS and quality of signals.

(b) The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of  India  (TRAI)  have  been  receiving  petitions/  representations/  grievances  from  mobile subscribers and other bodies regarding call drops in mobile networks.

The Government has been actively working with the stakeholders including TSPs to  take  effective  measures for  reducing  call  drops.  Many  a  policy  initiatives  have  been taken by DoT to facilitate infrastructure augmentation and improvement in service quality across the country such as Notification of Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 for regulating underground  infrastructure (optical fibre) and  over-ground infrastructure (mobile towers), launching of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)- 1955 service for obtaining direct feedback on call drops from mobile subscribers.

(c) TRAI, in accordance with The Standards for Quality of Service for Basic (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Services Regulations, regularly undertakes assessment of performance of all licensed mobile networks against the notified call-drop rate benchmarks. As per TRAI Reports, improvement in compliance to call drop benchmarks has  been  observed  in  quarter  ending  March  2018  as  compared  to  quarter  ending December 2017. The comparative position for the last two quarters is as follows:

Total cases of non-compliance

| Call drop benchmarks notified by TRAI                                                                                                                                             | Benchmark   | Total cases of non-compliance   | Total cases of non-compliance   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|                                                                                                                                                                                   |             | Quarter ending December 2017    | Quarter ending March 2018       |
| Call Drop rate- Spatial Distribution Measure: At least 90% of Cells in a given mobile network should be able to meet call drop rate of <=2% for minimum 90% of days in a quarter. | <= 2%       | 42                              | 13                              |
| Call Drop rate- Temporal Distribution Measure: At least 97% Cells in the network must have call drops <=3% for minimum of 90 %days in a quarter.                                  | <= 3%       | 31                              | 12                              |

Whenever the benchmarks are not met, action has been taken by TRAI to impose Financial Disincentives (FD). With effect from 1 st  October 2017, TRAI has introduced a revised graded FD structure which provides for increased FD in case of non-compliance to the benchmark, subject to a maximum FD of Rupees Five lakh per parameter, in case of first contravention and up to Rupees Ten lakh, in case of subsequent contraventions.

- (d) & (e) The Government has taken several measures which include:
- (i) making available sufficient spectrum for mobile services including auction of 965 MHz in 2016,
- (ii) allowing  Spectrum  Sharing,  Trading  and  liberalization  of  administratively allocated spectrum as per the guidelines to facilitate efficient utilization,
- (iii) permitting sharing of active as well as passive infrastructure by the telecom service providers for achieving higher utilisation efficiency,
- (iv) periodic review of expansion of mobile networks and related improvements carried out by TSPs- leading to addition of around 7.98 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations on aggregate basis for 2G/ 3G/4G services during the period July 2015 to June 2018,
- (v) review of improvement in the existing networks- around 8.09 lakh 2G/ 3G BTS-Cells  have  also  been  rectified/optimised  by  TSPs  during  the  period, July 2016 to May 2018,
- (vi)      facilitating  use  of  Government  estate  for  installation  of  mobile  towers      on multiple-sharing basis,
- (vii) launching of Tarang Sanchar, a public web portal, for information sharing on mobile towers and their EMF compliances, in May 2017.
- (viii) launching of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)- 1955 service for obtaining  direct  feedback  on  call  drops  from  mobile  subscribers  Around 1.74 crore mobile subscribers have been individually reached via IVRS by June 2018.

(f) Like  all  TSPs,  call  drops  also  occur  in  mobile  networks  of  M/s  Bharat  Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and M/s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). As per call drop-rate benchmark assessment carried out by TRAI for quarter ending March 2018, MTNL  complies  to  both  the  call  drop-rate  benchmarks  in  Delhi  &  Mumbai  and  BSNL complies in all LSAs except West Bengal.

In order to further improve service quality, BSNL  & MTNL have been augmenting their mobile networks and have carried out remedial measures / optimisation exercises in the  respective  areas.  While  MTNL  has  added  606  BTS  during  the  period  September 2017 to June 2018, BSNL has added 6859 BTS in the corresponding period. Besides, MTNL  &  BSNL  have  rectified/optimised  about  650  &  14,100  BTS-Cells  respectively during this interval.

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