Lok Sabha Question No. 358 (STARRED), answered on 2020-03-18
Subject: Problem of Call Drops
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 358 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 TH  MARCH, 2020

## PROBLEM OF CALL DROPS

## †*358. SHRI SUKHBIR SINGH JAUNAPURIA:

| Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:                                                                                                                                   |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| (a) the measures taken by the Government to ensure better network and address the problem of call drops in affected areas, State-wise;                                                     |
| (b) whether the Government is aware of the problem of call drops and poor network connectivity various areas especially in the villages of districts Tonk and Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan; |
| (c) if so, the details thereof;                                                                                                                                                            |
| (d) whether the Government proposes to allow spectrum sharing and trading so that connectivity may be improved; and                                                                        |
| (e) if so, the details thereof?                                                                                                                                                            |
| ANSWER                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW&JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)                                                                              |
| (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.                                                                                                                                  |

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) to  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *358  FOR  18 TH   MARCH,  2020 REGARDING 'PROBLEM OF CALL DROPS '.

(a) to (c) The Government is aware of the problem of call drops in the country. Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth for delivery of quality services. These include-

- (i) Permitting trading/sharing/ liberalisation of spectrum,
- (ii) Permitting passive & active infrastructure sharing,
- (iii) Notification of Right of Way Rules 2016,
- (iv) Making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc.
- (v) Carrying out Electro Magnetic  Field (EMF)  awareness  campaign  to  dispel  the misgivings  to  the  public  regarding  EMF  radiations  emission  from  mobile  towers through print and electronic media.

As a result, around 15.37 lakh additional BTSs for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by TSPs during the period from March, 2014 (6.49 lakh BTS) to 11th March 2020 (21.87 lakh BTS) across the country. Moreover, around 1.78 lakh mobile towers have been added during the period from December 2015 (4.15 lakh mobile towers) to 11th March 2020 (5.94 lakh mobile towers) across the country.

The call drop in a mobile network can happen due to many reasons including characteristics of radio propagation for wireless communications, non-availability of sites due to acquisition problems etc. The number of incidents of Call Drops/ Improper Network Coverage reported through Centralised Public Grievance Redressal And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) to Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the last three years & current year (upto 31st January, 2020) State/UTwise is given at Annexure . Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in India are required to ensure that the call-drop  rate  in  their  mobile  networks  remain  within  the  benchmarks  laid  down  by  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

TRAI  has  issued  'The  Standards  for  Quality  of  Service  for  Basic  (Wireline)  and  Cellular Mobile Telephone Services (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017' effective from 1st October 2017. These Regulations have prescribed two revised parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network, viz. Call drop-rate Spatial distribution measure (benchmark ≤ 2%) implies that at-least 90% of Cells in the network should perform better than specified 2% benchmark on at-least 90% of days. Similarly, another  new  parameter,  Call  drop-rate  Temporal  distribution  measure  (benchmark  ≤ 3%)  will  give confidence that on at-least 90% of Days, network performed better than specified 3% benchmark for at-least 97% of the Cells.

As per Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services for the quarter  ending  December  2019  of  TRAI,  all  TSPs  are  complying  to  both  Drop  Call  Rate  (DCR) benchmarks except M/s BSNL in one License Service Area (LSA) (West Bengal), M/s VIL(Idea) in two LSA (Himachal Pradesh, UP West) & M/s VIL(Vodafone) in one LSA (Himachal Pradesh).

TRAI monitors performance against various benchmarks quarterly through PMR submitted by service  providers  for  LSA  as  a  whole.  District-wise/specific  area-wise  performance  is  not  assessed. However, as on 29.02.2020 around 1808 Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) in Sawai Madhopur and 2138 BTSs in Tonk Districts in Rajasthan are providing mobile network connectivity. Further, new

Mobile  Towers/  BTSs  are  also  installed  by  TSPs  to  improve  coverage  and/or  capacity  of  their networks based on their techno-commercial assessments.

In  order  to  obtain  direct  feedback  from  subscribers,  DoT  has  launched  an  Interactive  Voice Response System (IVRS) wherein, around 3.53 Crore subscribers have  been individually  contacted since  December  2016,  out  of  which  49.46  lakh  subscribers  have  participated  in  the  survey.  The feedback is shared with the TSPs for taking corrective actions in a time bound manner. As a result, about 1.21 lakh individual cases of call drops have been resolved so far.

(d) & (e) TRAI  had  given  its  recommendations  on  'Guidelines  on  Spectrum  Sharing'  and 'Working Guidelines for Spectrum Trading' on 21.07.2014 and 28.01.2014 respectively. Subsequently, Department  of Telecommunications  allowed sharing of Access  Spectrum vide guidelines dated 24.09.2015 and trading of Access Spectrum vide guidelines dated 12.10.2015.

Annexure referred to in reply of para (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 358 to be answered  on  18 th March,2020  raised  by  Hon'ble  Member  of  Parliament  Shri  Sukhbir  Singh Jaunapuria, regarding 'Problem of Call Drops'

## State/ UT-wise number of incidents of Call Drops/ Improper Network Coverage

## (Through CPGRAMS)

| S.No.   | State/ UT Name              |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |
|---------|-----------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
| S.No.   | State/ UT Name              |                   2017 |                   2018 |                   2019 |                   2020 |
| 1       | Andaman And Nicobar Islands |                      8 |                      5 |                      1 |                      0 |
| 2       | Andhra Pradesh              |                     58 |                     23 |                     14 |                      1 |
| 3       | Arunachal Pradesh           |                     11 |                      2 |                      3 |                      0 |
| 4       | Assam                       |                     93 |                     27 |                     17 |                      2 |
| 5       | Bihar                       |                    331 |                     70 |                     54 |                      1 |
| 6       | Chandigarh                  |                     71 |                      7 |                     13 |                      0 |
| 7       | Chhattisgarh                |                     91 |                     29 |                      8 |                      0 |
| 8       | Dadra and Nagar Haveli      |                      3 |                      0 |                      2 |                      0 |
| 9       | Daman and Diu               |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 10      | Delhi                       |                    628 |                    190 |                    115 |                      1 |
| 11      | Goa                         |                     13 |                      2 |                      1 |                      0 |
| 12      | Gujarat                     |                    197 |                     56 |                     49 |                      2 |
| 13      | Haryana                     |                    230 |                     91 |                     41 |                      0 |
| 14      | Himachal Pradesh            |                     37 |                      8 |                      3 |                      0 |
| 15      | Jammu And Kashmir           |                    113 |                     18 |                      4 |                      0 |
| 16      | Jharkhand                   |                    105 |                     31 |                     13 |                      0 |
| 17      | Karnataka                   |                    146 |                    137 |                     83 |                      1 |
| 18      | Kerala                      |                     42 |                     33 |                     21 |                      0 |
| 19      | Lakshadweep                 |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 20      | Madhya Pradesh              |                    124 |                     22 |                     25 |                      0 |
| 21      | Maharashtra                 |                    513 |                    177 |                    125 |                      4 |
| 22      | Manipur                     |                      1 |                      0 |                      1 |                      0 |
| 23      | Meghalaya                   |                      8 |                      2 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 24      | Mizoram                     |                      5 |                      1 |                      1 |                      0 |
| 25      | Nagaland                    |                      1 |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 26      | Odisha                      |                    119 |                     72 |                     25 |                      0 |
| 27      | Puducherry                  |                      9 |                      1 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 28      | Punjab                      |                     65 |                     41 |                     39 |                      0 |
| 29      | Rajasthan                   |                    232 |                     89 |                     47 |                      1 |
| 30      | Sikkim                      |                      3 |                      0 |                      0 |                      0 |
| 31      | Tamil Nadu                  |                    161 |                     73 |                    183 |                      2 |
| 32      | Telangana                   |                     83 |                     30 |                     16 |                      0 |
| 33      | Tripura                     |                     23 |                      2 |                      2 |                      0 |
| 34      | Uttar Pradesh               |                    654 |                    300 |                    170 |                      5 |
| 35      | Uttarakhand                 |                     75 |                     30 |                      9 |                      0 |
| 36      | West Bengal                 |                    281 |                    109 |                     77 |                      2 |
|         | Total                       |                   4534 |                   1678 |                   1162 |                     22 |

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