Lok Sabha Question No. 3650 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-12-07
Subject: Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: P. KARUNAKARAN, CHANDU LAL SAHU, K. MARAGATHAM, ELUMALAI VELLAIGOUNDER, UDAY PRATAP SINGH, E. AHAMED, MOHANBHAI KALYANJIBHAI KUNDARIYA, K. C. VENUGOPAL, AJAY (TENI) MISRA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3650 TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 TH   DECEMER, 2016

## CALL DROP

3650.  SHRI P. KARUNAKARAN:

SHRI CHANDU LAL SAHU:

SHRIMATI K. MARAGATHAM:

SHRI V. ELUMALAI:

SHRI UDAY PRATAP SINGH:

SHRI E. AHAMED:

SHRI KUNDARIYA MOHAN BHAI KALYANJI BHAI:

SHRI K.C. VENUGOPAL:

SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the problem of call drop is still persisting despite guidelines issued by the TRAI and the telecom operators fail to meet the benchmark of two percent call drops in the test drive conducted by TRAI;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government against erring telephone companies in this regard, operator-wise;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to introduce a new ombudsman mechanism to resolve consumer grievances and the TRAI plans to release a consultation paper on  quality  service  benchmark,  call  drop  calculating  methodology  and  consumer grievance redressal framework;
- d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the telecom operator have committed to make more investment and install  additional mobile towers to arrest the call drop problem and if so, the details and the outcome thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) Madam,  the  dropping  of  calls  in  wireless  network  is  a  world-wide phenomenon and happens in every wireless network due to various reasons including poor  radio  coverage,  radio  interference,  loading  of  available  spectrum,  change  in pattern  of  traffic,  shutdown  of  sites  due  to  power  failures  etc.;  however,  the Government and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) are taking all possible steps  and  pursuing  with  the  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  to  address  the problem of call drop and bring it down within the permissible limit.

TRAI monitors the performance of service providers through quarterly performance monitoring reports and publishes the same on its website www.trai.gov.in.  From  analysis  of  the  quarterly  performance  monitoring  reports  of September  2015,  December  2015,  March  2016  and  June  2016  available  on  TRAI website,  it  has  been  noticed  that  there  has  been  consistent  improvement  in  the performance of service providers in meeting the benchmark for call drop parameters.

For addressing call drop issue, TRAI also regularly undertakes the drive tests of mobile networks in select cities; highways and railway routes to assess the Quality of  Service  and  coverage  around  the  areas  covered  in  the  drive  test  routes.  The results  of  drive  tests  are  shared  with  the  service  providers  for  improving  Quality  of Service and coverage in the areas identified in the Drive Tests. Detailed reports of these Independent Drive Tests are also published on TRAI's website www.trai.gov.in under Head - 'Notification' Sub-Head - 'RF Drive Test Portal - Reports'. TRAI had recently undertaken independent drive tests of the network of mobile operators in the cities of Amritsar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Agra, Patna, Kolkata, Shimla, Solan, Nasik, Panaji Goa, Surat, 9 National Highways, & 2 Railway Routes.  As per the drive test reports, most of the service providers are meeting the benchmark of ≤ 2% for the parameter Call  Drop  rate/Circuit  Switch  Voice  drop  rate  in  Agra,  Amritsar,  Kolkata, Chennai & Coimbatore. Non-compliance is observed mostly in Panaji, Nasik, Surat. It is  further  seen  that  in  Surat  &  Kolkata,  where  drive  tests  were  repeated,  there  is improvement in performance.

TRAI imposes financial disincentives for non-compliance with the benchmarks for  Quality  of  Service  parameters  including  call  drops.  The  details  of  financial disincentives imposed on the Cellular Service Telecom providers (2G & 3G) for noncompliance with the Quality of Service Benchmarks are given below:

| 2G Services                      | Total Rs. (in lakhs)   |
|----------------------------------|------------------------|
| Aircel                           | 302.50                 |
| Bharti Airtel                    | 40.00                  |
| Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) | 227.00                 |
| Idea                             | 25.50                  |
| Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.   | 1.50                   |
| Reliance Com                     | 132.50                 |
| Reliance Telecom                 | 32.00                  |
| Sistema                          | 3.00                   |
| Tata                             | 89.00                  |
| Telewings                        | 13.50                  |
| Vodafone                         | 84.00                  |
| Total                            | 950.50                 |
| 3G Services                      |                        |
| Aircel                           | 156.50                 |
| BSNL                             | 70.00                  |
| Vodafone                         | 2.50                   |
| Total                            | 229.00                 |

(c) & (d) In the year 2004, TRAI had recommended establishment of an office of Ombudsman in the telecommunication sector. However, the recommendation was not agreed  to  by  the  Government.  Again  in  July  2016,  TRAI  has  sought  the  views  of stakeholders on revisiting the option of establishing an office of Telecom Ombudsman.

TRAI has already issued a Consultation Paper on Review of network related Quality  of  Service  Standards  for  Cellular  Mobile  Telephone  Service  on  5 th August 2016. This said consultation paper described the various parameters and respective benchmarks for assessment of Quality of Service of 2G & 3G networks and sought the  comments  of  stakeholders  on  the  appropriate  way  to  calculate  call  drop  rates through  meta  data  analysis  of  CDRs  (Call  Detail  Records).    The  mechanism  of imposing financial disincentives in case of below the bench mark performance was also raised in the said consultation paper.

In the response submitted to TRAI against the said consultation paper, most of the  service  providers  and  their  associations  are  not  in  favour  of  any  change  in  the measurement  methodology  or  benchmark  for  any  parameter.  They  have  neither supported  financial  disincentives  for  non-compliance  of  benchmarks  nor  supported any  graded  penalty  beyond  what  is  prescribed  in  the  extant  regulations.  However, there are different views in the matter from other stakeholders.

TRAI  is  seized  of  the  matter  to  address  the  same  through  appropriate regulations.

(e) The TSPs have reported that they have already installed more than 1,20,000 additional  BTSs  (Base  Transceiver  Stations)  across  the  country  during  3½  month period from 15 th June 2016 to 30 th September 2016 and further plan to install about 1,56,000 additional BTSs across the country up to 31 st March 2017.The TSPs have also  informed  that  about  4,97,000  BTSs  have  been  optimized  for  improvement  in Network  Performance  during  June  2015  onwards  and  in  addition,  frequency  replanning done for more than 4,25,000 BTSs for handling interference issues. These initiatives have been taken by the TSPs to address the call drop problem also.

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