Lok Sabha Question No. 609 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-19
Subject: Call Drop Issue
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: UDAY PRATAP SINGH, PRABHAS KUMAR SINGH, GOWDAR MALLIKARJUNAPPA SIDDESHWARA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.609 TO BE ANSWERED ON 19 th  JULY, 2017

## CALL DROP ISSUE

- †609.   SHRI UDAY PRATAP SINGH: DR. PRABHAS KUMAR SINGH: SHRI G.M. SIDDESHWARA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the reported increase in menace of call drops and call  failures  across  the  country  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  including  the  number  of  such  cases reported, Telecom Service Provider (TSP)- wise and State/UT-wise along with the reasons therefor;
- (b) the steps taken by the Government to address these issues in a time-bound manner;
- (c) whether  the  non-maintenance  of  various  telecommunication  equipments  and  cables  are resulting in the issue of call drops and network problems and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (d) whether the cases of wrongfully hiding the issue of call drop by the TSPs have come to the notice  of  the  Government  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  action  taken  by  the  Government against the erring TSPs?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) No, Madam. There have been consistent improvements in compliance to benchmarks notified  by  Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  for  call  drop  rate  in  case  of  2G  and  3G services.

The performance of Service Providers on call drop is accessed by TRAI for both 2G and 3G services  through  two  parameters  viz.  'call  drop  rate  (benchmark  less  than  or  equal  to  2%)'  on monthly average basis for the licensed Service Area and 'worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel (TCH) drop/ Circuit Switched Voice drop rate (benchmark less than or equal to 3%).' Any Cell with TCH drop/Circuit Switched Voice drop rate more than 3% is treated as bad cell whose performance is to be improved.

All  service providers for 2G (total 168 service providers) and 3G services (total 108 service providers) have been consistently complying to call drop rate benchmark of less than or equal to 2% for  the  last  four  quarters  i.e.  one  year.  Besides,  the  number  of  service  providers  not  complying  to Worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop/ Circuit Switched Voice drop rate (benchmark less than or equal to 3%) for 2G services has significantly decreased from 54 (for the quarter ending in September 2015) to 14 (for quarter ending in March 2017). Similarly, it has decreased from 20 to 10 in the corresponding period for 3G services.

In  order  to  address  call  drop  issue  in  effective  and  time-bound  manner,  the  Department  of Telecommunications  (DoT)  has  taken  many  initiatives  including  (i)  making  available  sufficient spectrum for mobile services- auction of 965 MHz in 2016, (ii) allowing Spectrum Sharing, Trading and  liberlisation  of  administratively  allocated  spectrum  as  per  the  guidelines  to  facilitate  efficient utilisation, (iii)  permitting sharing of active as well as passive infrastructure by the Telecom Service Providers  (TSPs) for  achieving  higher  efficiency,  (iv)  notification  of  Indian  Telegraph  Right  of  Way Rules,  2016  for  regulating  underground  infrastructure  (optical  fibre)  and  over-ground  infrastructure (mobile  towers),  (v)  periodic  review  of  expansion  of  mobile  networks  and  related  improvements carried  out  by  the  service  providers-  leading  to  addition  of  around  4.22  lakh  additional  Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) on aggregate basis for 2G/3G/4G services during the period-July 2015 to June 2017 as well as rectification/ optimisation of more than 4 lakh 2G/3G Cells on all-India basis and  installation  of  over  13  thousand  BTS-repeaters,  (vi)  facilitating  use  of  Government  estate  for installation of mobile towers on multiple-sharing basis, and (vii) launching of Tarang Sanchar, a public web  portal  for  information  sharing  on  mobile  towers  and  Electro  Magnetic  Field  (EMF)  emission compliances to clear misconceptions, myth and dispel fear.

In addition to the above, DoT has launched Interactive Voice Response Service (IVRS) using short code 1955 in five States on 23 December 2016 to get direct feedback from the subscribers on call drops. This service was extended to other States from 12 January, 2017 onwards. Over 47 lakh IVRS calls have been made till 31 May 2017, out of which 6.30 lakh subscribers participated in the survey and 3.74 lakh have reported call drops, mostly indoors. The feedback is shared with the TSPs who in turn contact each subscriber by phone/SMS (Short Messaging Service) to get further details for resolution of specific complaints.So far, 23727 individual complaints of call drop reported through IVRS system have been resolved and 14881 complaints related to issues other than call drop such as roaming, billing, MNP (Mobile Number Portability), mobile device etc. have also been resolved. 358 new BTS sites/Boosters have been added during the period. The feedback has proved very useful and resulted in a drop of 7% in IVRS complaints related to call drops since its launch.

(c) & (d) 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, non-maintenance of the equipments and cable, etc.

The cases of wrongfully hiding the issue of call drop have not come to the notice.

Both the Government and TRAI are taking all possible steps and pursuing with the TSPs to address the problem of call drop and bring it down within the permissible limit.

As a result,  availability  of  2G  and  3G  mobile  networks  have  been  consistently  improving  in terms of related TRAI benchmarks i.e. accumulated downtime (benchmark less than or equal to 2%). As per latest report published by TRAI for the quarter ending on March 2017, the non-compliance has reduced from 8 TSPs to 1 in case of 2G and from 7 TSPs to 1 in case of 3G services.

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