Lok Sabha Question No. 59 (STARRED), answered on 2019-11-20
Subject: BSNL Network Quality
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Dileshwar Kamait

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 59 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20 TH   NOVEMBER, 2019

## BSNL NETWORK QUALITY

## †*59. SHRI DILESHWAR KAMAIT:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  are  violating  the  rules  of  the  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with regard to call drops and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the remedial steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (c) whether the network quality of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) across the country is in poor condition, if so, the details thereof and the corrective steps taken by the Government in this regard;
- (d) whether  the  BSNL  is  lagging  behind  in  competitive  telecom  market  and  the  number  of  its customers has declined drastically during the last three years; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) to (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *59 FOR 20 TH  NOVEMBER, 2019  ON 'BSNL NETWORK QUALITY'.

(a) & (b) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been monitoring the performance of  telecom  service  providers  against  the  benchmarks  for  various  Quality  of  Service  parameters including call drops, laid down by TRAI by way of Quality of Service regulations issued from time to time, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs). The performance is assessed for the Licence Service Area (LSA) as a whole.

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. 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.

As per the PMR for Cellular Mobile Telephone  Services for the quarter  ending September 2019,  all  the  service  providers  have  complied  with  the  benchmark  'Network  QoS  DCR  Spatial distribution measure or DCR Network\_QSD(90,90) (benchmark ≤ 2%)' except M/s BSNL in West Bengal service area. For the parameter 'Network QoS DCR temporal distribution measure or DCR Network\_QTD(97,90) (benchmark ≤ 3%)' all the service providers has complied with the benchmark for  these  parameters  except  M/s  BSNL  in  West  Bengal  service  area  and  M/s  VIL(Idea)  & VIL(Vodafone) in Jammu & Kashmir service area.

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.

With  effect  from  1st  October  2017,  TRAI  has  also  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) As regards network quality of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), as per the PMR for Cellular  Mobile  Telephone  Services  for  the  quarter  ending  September  2019,  BSNL  is  generally complying with all the network related parameters in all the service areas, except for the parameters relating  to  call  drop  in  West  Bengal  Service  area  and  for  the  parameter  'Worst  affected  Base Stations(BSs) due to down-time (%age) (benchmark ≤2)' in Kerala Service Area.

(d) & (e) The number of customers of BSNL for cellular services has increased slightly in the last  three  years.  However,  it  has  decreased  in  case  of  landline  and  broadband  services.  The  total number of subscribers  as  on  March-2017,  March-2018,  March-2019  and  30 th September-2019 is  at Annexure-I.

BSNL is incurring losses since 2009-10. As per the guidelines issued by Department of Public Enterprises  (DPE)  for  'Streamlining  the  mechanism  for  revival  and  restructuring  of  sick/incipient sick  and  weak  Central  Public  Sector  Enterprises',  DoT  initiated  the  process  for  preparation  of restructuring/revival plan of BSNL/MTNL. The revival plan is approved by Cabinet in its meeting held on 23.10.2019. The revival plan consists of several measures including reduction of staff cost through  Voluntary  Retirement  Scheme,  allotment  of  spectrum  for  4G  services,  monetization  of land/building, tower and fiber assets of BSNL/MTNL, debt restructuring through sovereign guarantee bonds and in-principle approval of merger of BSNL and MTNL.

## Annexure-I

Annexure referred to in reply of para (d) to (e) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 59 to be answered on 20th November, 2019 raised by Hon'ble Members of Parliament Shri DileshwarKamait regarding 'BSNL Network Quality'.

|           | The number of customers of BSNL   | The number of customers of BSNL   | The number of customers of BSNL   | The number of customers of BSNL   |
|-----------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
| Service   | March 2017                        | March 2018                        | March 2019                        | September 2019                    |
| Wireless  | 10,02,13,739                      | 11,10,46,445                      | 11,56,64,576                      | 11,69,72,029                      |
| Wireline  | 1,36,88,964                       | 1,22,67,391                       | 1,11,67,679                       | 1,01,29,492                       |
| Broadband | 1,02,76,653                       | 98,89,003                         | 99,65,012                         | 96,37,643                         |

************