Lok Sabha Question No. 2982 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-08-03
Subject: Investment in Telecom Sector
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: E. T. MOHAMMED BASHEER, PONNUSAMY VENUGOPAL, SRINIVAS KESINENI, M. K. RAGHAVAN, B. SREERAMULU, SISIR KUMAR ADHIKARI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2982 TO BE ANSWERED ON 3 RD  AUGUST, 2016

## INVESTMENT IN TELECOM SECTOR

2982.  SHRI E.T. MOHAMMED BASHEER:

DR. P. VENUGOPAL:

SHRI KESINENI NANI:

SHRI M.K. RAGHAVAN:

SHRI R. SRIRAMULU:

SHRI SISIR KUMAR ADHIKARI:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the telecom operators have submitted a 100 days action plan to the Government where they have committed to invest about Rs. 12,000 crore in the next three months to set up 60,000 new base transmitter stations;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the figures are showing improvement in mobile services, but quality of service is still not satisfactory;
- (d) if so, the reasons therefor;
- (e) whether the Government  proposes  to  ensure a uniform Procedure  for installation of mobile towers and set up a national data base on call drop for better services; and
- (f) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (f) Madam,  the  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  had  submitted  to  the Government that they plan to install more than one lakh new BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations)  in  the  next  12  months,  entailing  an  investment  of  about  Rupees  20,000 crore, to rein in the call drop  menace  and  give  a  fillip to the Digital India campaign.TheTSPs and the Government had agreed to a target of setting up 60,000 mobile BTSs within 100 days, and the TSPs have managed to set up 48,000 sites so far  (i.e.  between  10 th June  2016  to  25 th July  2016).Though  the  progress  made  by telecom  companies  leading  to  the  first  100  days  of  the  initial  discussion  has  been satisfactory but it is important for the customers to be satisfied with the services.The Government and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), both are seized of the network  deficiency  issue  and  pursuing  with  TSPs  to  take  corrective  measures  to address the same.

For assessing the performance of service providers on call drop, both for 2G and 3G services,  TRAI  has  laid  down  two  parameters  viz.  (i)  'call  drop  rate/Circuit Switch  Voice  drop  rate  (benchmark  -  less  than  or  equal  to  2%)';  and  (ii)  'worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel(TCH) drop/Circuit Switched Voice drop rate during Cell Bouncing Busy Hour(CBBH) (benchmark - less than or equal to 3%).'

As  per  the  performance  monitoring  reports  for  the  quarter  ending  December 2015 and March 2016, submitted by service providers for 2G & 3G Services, it is seen that for 'call drop rate/Circuit Switch Voice drop rate (benchmark - less than or equal to 2%)'  only Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in North East Service area has not met the benchmark for this parameter in 2G services and number of instances of non-compliance has increased from 2 in December 2015 to 3 in March 2016 for 3G services, whereas for the parameter 'worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH drop rate (benchmark - less than or equal to 3%)', the instances of non-compliance have come down from 39 in December 2015 to 27 in March 2016 for 2G services and from 18 in December 2015 to 15 in March 2016 for 3G services for this parameter.

The  TSPs  based  on  assessment  of  their  Network  requirement  plan  for installation of mobile towers in their area of operation and for that purpose use tools specific  to  the  technology  deployed  by  them.  As  such,  it  may  not  be  possible  to mandate a uniform procedure for installation of mobile towers. Further, TRAI has been pursuing  with  service  providers  for  improving  Quality  of  Service  and  in  this  regard regular  interactions  are  held  with  the  service  providers.    TRAI  has  also  engaged independent agencies for auditing and assessing the quality of service and surveys are  being  done  regularly  through  independent  agencies  to  assess  the  customer perception of service.  The results of the audit and assessment of quality of service and surveys are published for the information of stakeholders, which also force the service providers to improve the quality of service.  Wherever the quality of service benchmarks  are  not  met,  TRAI  has  also  been  imposing  financial  disincentives  on service providers, for failure to comply with the benchmarks, in accordance with the provisions of the regulations. As such, presently, there is no plan to set up a national data base on call drop.

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