Lok Sabha Question No. 707 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Issue of Call Drops
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Dharambir Singh, Rajendra Dhedya  Gavit

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 707 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  JUNE, 2019

## ISSUE OF CALL DROPS

## †707.   SHRI DHARAMBIR SINGH: SHRI RAJENDRA DHEDYA GAVIT:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has identified the reasons behind the problem of call drop and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether any solution has been found by the Government to the said problem of call drops and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether this problem is unprecedented to the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to formulate any policy/programme to resolve the said problem and if so, the details thereof along with the time by which the said policy/programme is likely to be implemented; and
- (e) whether the Government proposes to cancel the licence of the telecom companies failing to control the problem of call-drops and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(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).

While  Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT),  under  the  framework  developed  by TRAI, works with TSPs to improve quality of service to end users, the ultimate responsibility of ensuring quality of services, including resolution of call drop issues, lies with the TSPs.

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 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 atleast  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 March 2019  of  TRAI,  all  TSPs  are  complying  to  Drop  Call  Rate  (DCR)  benchmarks  despite  rapid increase in traffic volume and more stringent benchmarks, except M/s BSNL in West Bengal.

- (d) In order to address call drops, following steps have been taken:
- (i) 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.
- (ii) About  14.95  lakh  additional  Base  Transceiver  Stations  (BTSs)  for  2G/3G/4GLTE services have been added by TSPs since March 2014 taking the total BTS count in the country to about 21.45 lakh in June 2019.
- (iii) In  order  to  obtain  direct  feedback  from  subscribers,  DoT  has  launched  an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) wherein, around 2.73 Crore subscribers have been individually contacted since December 2016, out of which 38.3 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 lakh individual cases of call drops have been resolved so far.

(e) No such proposal is under consideration by the Government for cancellation of licence of telecom companies.

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