Telcos to face action for hiding call drops: Govt

New Delhi, July 22 

Telecom operators will face action for using the radio-link technology to mask call drops, Union Minister Manoj Sinha said today.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha on usage of the radio-link technology for hiding call drops, Sinha said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) through agencies had conducted drive tests of mobile networks in 12 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

“Some of the service providers in these cities have high RLT values, which indicate that the call can be sustained even during poor quality for a longer time, resulting in the poor customer experience,” the minister said. He said Trai had sought detailed information from mobile service providers on the RLT values on their network. “After examination of the information received from the service providers, necessary action will be taken,” Sinha said.

In a separate reply, Sinha said, “Only BSNL in the North East Service area has not met the benchmark for this parameter in 2G services and the number of instances of non-compliance has increased from two in December 2015 to three in March 2016 for 3G services.”

He said call drop instances during peak hours had come down from 39 in December 2015 to 27 in March 2016 for 2G services and from 18 to 15 for 3G services during period under review.

On the SC order that quashed Trai’s call drop rule mandating telecs to provide relief to users, Sinha said the government had taken note of the order which raised “questions on Trai’s power and working”. — PTI