Lok Sabha Question No. 3504 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-17
Subject: Problem of Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Dharambir Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3504 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17 TH  MARCH, 2021

## PROBLEM OF CALL DROP

## †3504. SHRI DHARAMBIR SINGH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the increasing problem of call drop;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto along with the concrete steps taken by the Government to address the problem;
- (c) whether the Government is aware of the fact that telecom companies offer their plans for 2728 days a month instead of 30-31 days; and
- (d) if so, details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto along with the steps taken by the Government to stop this unfair trade practice?

## ANSWER

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

(a) & (b) Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in India are required to ensure that the call-drop rate  in  their  mobile  networks  remains  within  the  benchmarks  laid  down  by  Telecom  Regulatory Authority  of  India  (TRAI).  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) during the year 2018, 2019 & 2020 are 1678, 1162 & 298 respectively.

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.

Nearly 15.77 lakh additional Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by TSPs during the period from March, 2014 (6.49 lakh BTS) to 10 th March 2021 (22.27 lakh BTS) across the country. Moreover, around 2.24 lakh mobile towers have been added during  the  period  from  December  2015  (4.15  lakh  mobile  towers)  to  10 th March  2021  (6.39  lakh mobile towers) across the country.

Moreover,  in  order  to  obtain  direct  feedback  from  subscribers,  DoT  has  launched  an Interactive  Voice  Response  System  (IVRS)  wherein  around  4.44  crore  subscribers  have  been individually contacted since December 2016, out of which 61.65 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  1.51  lakh  individual  cases  of  call  drops  have  been  resolved  so  far  and around  7,395  BTSs  have  been  installed  by  the  TSPs  specifically  to  resolve  the  call  drops  issues received through IVRS.

Further,  TRAI  has  been  monitoring  the  performance  of  TSPs  for  the  License  Service  Area (LSA) as a whole, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) submitted by them against the benchmarks for various Quality of Service parameters laid down by TRAI.

TRAI has issued 'The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and  Cellular  Mobile  Telephone  Service  (Fifth  Amendment)  Regulations,  2017'  effective  from  1st October 2017. These Regulations have prescribed two revised stringent parameters for assessing call drop in mobile network, viz. Drop Call Rate (DCR) 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,  DCR  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.

Wherever  the  benchmark  is  not  met  by  service  provider,  the  explanation  of  the  service providers is  called  for  and  after  considering  the  explanation  submitted  by  service  providers  in  this regard, TRAI imposes financial disincentives for non-compliance with the benchmark. Effective from 1st October 2017, TRAI has introduced a revised graded Financial Disincentives (FD) structure for DCR parameters, based on the extent to which a TSP's performance deviates from the specified DCR benchmark.

(c) & (d) As  per  the existing tariff  framework,  the  traffic  for  mobile  services  is  under forbearance except for national roaming, rural fixed line services and leased circuits. The TSPs have full flexibility in deciding on the rates and conditions such as validity period. Tariffs are offered by TSPs  taking  into  account  several  factors  including  input  costs,  level  of  competition  and  other commercial  considerations.  Moreover,  billing  of  post-paid  connection  is  on  monthly  basis  and validity of prepaid recharge voucher is expressed in days and not in months.

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