India’s Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said that the government is aiming to bring down the call drop rate further by the year-end.
The call drop rate has reduced by 8 percent in the last one year following the investment of extra base stations across cities and small towns.
After a review meeting with telecom operators, the telecom minister told reporters that the rate had come down by 8 percent since the last review meeting held a year ago. Manoj Sinha also said that there was substantial improvement in customer satisfaction as well.
Major telecom companies present at the meeting include Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Telenor, BSNL and Reliance Communications.
The telecom minister said the telecom companies had met the target of setting up 60,000 cellular sites or BTS with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore in 100 days.
Indian telecom regulator TRAI on August 18 announced stricter rules regarding call drops and said telecom operators who didn’t meet the norms could face a fine of at least Rs 5 lakh. Previously, penalty on call drop norm violation was Rs 50,000 per violation.
TRAI introduced graded financial disincentives in case service providers fail to meet the DCR (drop call rates) benchmarks. Amount payable by telecom operators may depend upon the extent of deviation from the benchmarks. “If the benchmark is not met, the service provider may be fined up to Rs 5 lakh against one parameter depending upon the extent of deviation of performance from the benchmark,” TRAI said.
“In case of consecutive contravention of the benchmarks for two quarters, financial disincentive may be up to one-and-half times — and in case of consecutive contravention of the benchmark for more than two quarters, it may be twice the amount,” TRAI said.
TRAI said the amended regulation of Quality of Service (QoS) would be effective from October 1, 2017.
