Lok Sabha Question No. 800 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-06-26
Subject: Call Drop Problem
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Bhagwanth Khuba

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 800 TO BE ANSWERED ON 26 TH  JUNE, 2019

## CALL DROP PROBLEM

## 800. SHRI BHAGWANTH KHUBA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the rising problem of call drops in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the action taken by the Government against the telecom operators in this regard; and
- (c) whether the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has taken/ proposed to take any action to deal with the said issue and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT)  has  been  interacting  with  Telecom Service  Providers  (TSPs)  and  reviewing  the  progress  of  their  action-plans  for  addressing  call drops in their mobile networks on a continuous basis.

DoT has taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth for delivery of quality  services.  These  include  permitting  trading/sharing/  liberalisation  of  spectrum  already granted, permitting passive & active infrastructure-sharing, Notification of Right of Way Rules2016, making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc.

As a result of continuous efforts, about 14.95 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE 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. Moreover, about 10.97 lakh 2G/3G Cells rectified/optimised by TSPs during July 2016 to April 2019 (in general, one BTS has 03 Cells).

Further,  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. About 1 lakh individual cases of call drops reported through IVRS, have been resolved so far.

Significant reduction has been observed in number of complaints pertaining to call drops received  on  Centralised  Public  Grievance  Redressal  And  Monitoring  System  (CPGRAMS)  in DoT during  last  three  years.  The  number  of  complaints  received  in  2017  was  4534  which  is reduced to 1678 in 2018 and 533 for the period from 1 st January 2019 to 31 st May 2019.

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),  as  the  ultimate  responsibility  for  ensuring  quality  of  services  to consumers lies with the TSPs.

S ignificant  improvement  has  been  observed  in  terms  of  TSPs'  compliance  to  TRAI's Quality of Services benchmarks on Drop Call Rate (DCR) in spite of rapid-increase in traffic volume  and  more  stringent  TRAI  benchmarks  effective  1 st October  2017.  TSPs  are  mostly complying to these benchmarks.

(c) For improving the quality of service and to ensure compliance with benchmarks, TRAI has taken the following steps:

-  Close  monitoring  of  performance  of  service  providers,  against  the  benchmarks  for various Quality of Service parameters including Call drop laid down by TRAI, through periodic reports from service providers.
-  Follow up action with service providers for improving quality of service.
-  Audit and Assessment of Quality of Service through independent agencies.
-  Publication of results of Audit & Assessment of Quality of Service, including for Call Drop parameters on TRAI website namely www.trai.gov.in for information of stakeholders, encourging the service providers to improve its service.
-  TRAI regularly undertakes the drive tests of mobile networks in selected cities, highways and railway routes to assess the Quality of Service and coverage around the areas covered in the drive test routes. The results of Drive tests are shared with the service providers and publish on TRAI website namely www.trai.gov.in for information of stakeholders, forcing the service providers to improve its service.
-  TRAI is already implementing its plan for undertaking operator assisted drive tests in all the  Long-Distance  Charging  Areas  (LDCA)  of  the  country  under  the  supervision  of TRAI's appointed independent agency and officers of TRAI.  This will give an indication of the coverage, voice quality and call drop issues in the various parts of the country so that  the  service  providers  could  take  necessary  action to  address  the problems in those areas.
-  Imposition of financial disincentives for non-compliance with the benchmarks for Quality of Service parameters.

The continuous efforts put-in by the Government, TRAI and Telecom Service Providers have  resulted  in  consistent  improvement  in  compliance  to  Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of India's (TRAI) Quality of Service Benchmarks. Further, Governments initiatives and augmentation in the installation of BTS has resulted in improvement and expansion of mobile phone coverage in the country.

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