Lok Sabha Question No. 2753 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-04
Subject: Poor Network and Call Drop
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Sukhbir Singh Badal

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2753 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4 TH  AUGUST, 2021

## POOR NETWORK AND CALL DROP

## †2753. SHRI SUKHBIR SINGH JAUNAPURIA:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken any measures to ensure better network service and to address the problem of call drops in areas  affected by poor connectivity and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether  the  Government  is  aware  of  the  problem  of  call  drops  and  poor  network connectivity  in  many  areas,  particularly  in  the  villages  of  districts  and  Sawai  Madhopur  in Rajasthan;
- (c) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reaction  of  the  Government  thereto  along  with  the corrective measures taken by the Government in this regard; and

(d) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  allow  spectrum  trading  and  sharing  in  order  to improve connectivity and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS (SHRI DEVUSINH CHAUHAN)

(a) to (c) The Government is aware of the problem of call drops. 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, etc. 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).

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. Districtwise/specific area-wise performance is not assessed. At present, around 1927 Base Transceiver Stations  (BTSs)  in  Sawai  Madhopur  District  in  Rajasthan  are  providing  mobile  network connectivity. New Mobile Towers/ BTSs are installed by TSPs to improve coverage and capacity of their networks based on their techno-commercial assessments.

Department of Telecommunications (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. Nearly,16.14 lakh additional BTSs for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by TSPs during the period from March, 2014 (6.49 lakh BTSs) to 27 th July 2021 (22.64 lakh BTSs) across the country.

Moreover,  in  order  to  obtain  direct  feedback  from  subscribers,  DoT  has  launched  an Interactive  Voice  Response  System  (IVRS)  wherein  around  5.02  crore  subscribers  have  been individually  contacted  since  December  2016,  out  of  which  67.52  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  1.60  lakh  individual  cases  of  call  drops  have  been resolved so far and around 7,592 BTSs have been installed by the TSPs specifically to resolve the call drops issues received through IVRS.

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 atleast 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 atleast 97% of the Cells.

Wherever the benchmark is not met by service providers, the explanation from the service providers is called for. 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.

As per PMR for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services for the quarter ending March, 2021 of TRAI, all TSPs are complying to both DCR benchmarks except M/s BSNL in one LSA (West Bengal) and M/s VIL in one LSA (Jammu & Kashmir).

(d) TRAI  had  given  its  recommendations  on  'Guidelines  on  Spectrum  Sharing'  and 'Working  Guidelines  for  Spectrum  Trading'  on  21.07.2014  and  28.01.2014  respectively. Subsequently,  Department  of  Telecommunications  allowed  sharing  of  Access  Spectrum  vide guidelines dated 24.09.2015 and trading of Access Spectrum vide guidelines dated 12.10.2015.

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