The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday, warned the telecom operators to take strict action on call drop problem or face severe action. TRAI gives 15 days deadline to all Indian telecom companies for improving, optimizing and strengthening their respective networks.
The union cabinet held on 9th September discussed call drops issue and inactivity of telecom companies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, enquired Telecom Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, to take strict action against telecom industry players if the issue regarding call drop is not improved.
At a public event in New Delhi, Telecom Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “We are not going to impose penalty, but if situation is not improving, then all telecom operators will be addressed and proper action will be taken against them.”
Chairman of the regulator TRAI, R.S Sharma also had a meeting with the heads of telecom industries and warned them regarding the issue.
Mr Sharma also advised operators to minimize call drop issue, which need to be resolved within 15 days. If no improvement is found after a 15 days trial period, TRAI will cross the bridge.
The top executives of leading telecom companies, including, Gopal Vittal of Bharti Airtel, Himanshu Kapania of Idea Cellular’s and Reliance Communication‘s Gurdeep Singh were present at the meeting.
Last week, the regulator TRAI issued a consultation paper on call drop issue; the paper proposed that mobile users should be compensated for each call they suffer.
Also, users should not be charged for a call that gets dropped within 5 second due to some technical issues on a network.
Chairman of the regulator TRAI, R.S Sharma said, “We are in process to issue second consultation paper so that regulator can have an exact idea and reasons regarding call drop issue.”
From June to July 2015, the regulator TRAI conducted a surprise test on certain lanes in New Delhi and Mumbai and found that, drop rates of telecom operators are much higher than the limit set by TRAI, which is 2 percent.
TRAI chairperson also told the companies to reveal information of customers they have in their circle and whether they can provide services efficiently or not, with their current infrastructure.
