Lok Sabha Question No. 1160 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-25
Subject: Charges for Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: RANJANBEN BHATT, AJAY (TENI) MISRA, BHARAT SINGH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1160 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25 th   JULY, 2018

## CHARGES FOR CALL DROP

- †1160. SHRIMATI RANJANBEN BHATT: SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI: SHRI BHARAT SINGH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is considering to take strict and effective action against erring telecom operators with regard to increase in instances of call drops;
- (b) if so, whether the Government has taken any steps in this regard so far;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to levy any charges on the mobile companies for call drop in view of rising number of call drop problems faced by the customers; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e) Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  has  been  monitoring  the Quality of Service performed  by  Telecom  Service Providers (TSPs)  against the benchmarks  for  the  various  quality  of  service  parameters  laid  down  by  TRAI  through regulations issued from time to time, including parameters relating to call drop.

TRAI  had  recently  reviewed  the  network  related  parameters  and  issued  'the Standards  for  Quality  of  Service  for  Basic  (Wireline)  and  Cellular  Mobile  Telephone Services (Fifth Amendment)  Regulations, 2017' dated 18 th August 2017.  These Regulations, effective from 1 st  October 2017 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 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  will  give  better  insight  into  the network  performance  of  service  provider  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 PMR for the quarter ending March 2018, all TSPs offering mobile services are generally meeting both the parameters in all License Service Areas (LSAs) except, M/s Idea & Tata is not meeting in 5 LSAs each, M/s Telenor in 2 LSAs and M/s BSNL in 1 LSA only. For the parameter Call drop-rate Temporal distribution measure, M/s Tata is not meeting in 7 LSAs, M/s Idea & Telenor in 2 LSAs each and M/s BSNL in 1 LSA only.

So far  as  violations  are  concerned,  the  Authority  has  now  introduced  a  revised graded  Financial  Disincentives  (FD)  structure,  effective  from  1 st   October  2017,  for monitoring compliance against these parameters. If network does not meet benchmark, then  financial  disincentives  may  also  be  increased  by  Rupees  One  lakh  for  every  2% deviation  from  the  benchmark,  subject  to  a  maximum  FD  of  Rupees  Five  lakh  per parameter,  in  case  of  first  contravention.    However,  in  the  case  of  non-compliance  in consecutive quarters, then the amount of FD may be increased by a factor of 1.5 for first consecutive contravention and by a factor of 2 for second and subsequent consecutive contraventions.    The  total  amount  payable  as  financial  disincentives  under  this  new regulation in a quarter, for one or both parameters combined, shall not exceed Rupees Ten Lakhs.

In  accordance  with  above,  action  has  been  initiated  for  imposing  financial disincentives on TSPs for non-compliance with the benchmarks.

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