Lok Sabha Question No. 2076 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-04
Subject: Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Sunil Kumar Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2076 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4 TH  MARCH, 2020

## CALL DROP

## †2076. SHRI SUNIL KUMAR SINGH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether mobile phone subscribers are reportedly facing the problem of call drops and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the instances of call drop reported during each of the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise and Telecom Service Provider (TSP)-wise;
- (b) the steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c) whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made any recommendation to curb the problem of call drop and if so, the details and the major recommendations thereof and the action taken by the Government thereon?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a) to (c) 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, sealing of sites by local authorities due to fear of Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMF) from mobile radiations etc. Therefore, the occurrence of call drops is found to be common in mobile networks across the world with varying degree of occurrences. 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 1 st October 2017. These Regulations have prescribed two revised parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network, viz. Call droprate 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.

Revised  approach  for  assessing  Call  drop-rate  gives  better  insight  into  the  network  performance  of service providers and help to highlight the specific areas and specific days when network performance was excellent or good or poor. The performance on these parameters is monitored quarterly through Performance Monitoring Reports (PMR) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole.

As per the 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 despite rapid increase in traffic volume and more  stringent  benchmarks,  except  M/s  BSNL  in  one  LSA  (West  Bengal),  M/s  VIL(Idea)  in  two  LSA (Himachal Pradesh, UP West)& M/s VIL(Vodafone) in one LSA (Himachal Pradesh).

Wherever the  benchmark  is  not  met,  the  explanation  of  the  Service  Providers  is  called  for  and  after considering the explanation submitted by service providers in this regard, TRAI impose financial disincentives for non-compliance with the benchmark.

DoT has taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth for delivery of quality services. These include permitting trading/sharing/ liberalisation of spectrum, permitting passive & active infrastructure sharing, notification of Right of Way Rules 2016, making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc.As a result, around 15.35 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) during the period from March, 2014 (6.49 lakh BTS) to 31 st January, 2020 (21.85 lakh BTS) across the country.

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 every week 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.

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 31 st January,  2020)State/UT-wise is given at Annexure-I and major Telecom Service Provider (TSP)-wise is given at Annexure-II .

## Annexure-I

Annexure  referred  to  in  reply  of  para  (a)  to  (c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  2076  to  be answered  on  4 th   March,  2020  raised  by  Hon'ble  Member  of  Parliament  Shri  Sunil  Kumar  Singh, regarding 'Call Drop'

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

| Sr.No.   | State/ UT Name              |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |
|----------|-----------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
| Sr.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       | Tamilnadu                   |                    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 |

Annexure  referred  to  in  reply  of  para  (a)  to  (c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  2076  to  be answered  on  4 th   March,2020  raised  by  Hon'ble  Member  of  Parliament  Shri  Sunil  Kumar  Singh, regarding 'Call Drop'

TSP-wise number of incidents of Call Drops/ Improper Network Coverage

| Sr. No.   |      |   Received During Year |   Received During Year |   Received During Year | Received During Year   |
|-----------|------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
| Sr. No.   |      |                   2017 |                   2018 |                   2019 | TSP Name 2020          |
| 1         | 1162 |                    518 |                    324 |                      7 | Bharti Airtel          |
| 2         | 1173 |                    333 |                    214 |                      3 | BSNL                   |
| 3         | 309  |                    123 |                    102 |                      1 | Idea                   |
| 4         | 240  |                     49 |                     17 |                      1 | MTNL                   |
| 5         | 877  |                    430 |                    312 |                      4 | RelianceJio            |
| 6         | 478  |                    217 |                    156 |                      6 | Vodafone               |

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