Stern action against telcos failing to address call drops: Prasad

Minister says India's a big market and operators must be serious about unclogging network congestion

Alerting telecom service providers about stricter action by the government on call drop issues, Union Minister for Communication & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Sunday that companies should not ignore a market as big as India.

“We are a country of one billion mobile and 400 million internet connections. It is a very big market for companies. While I appreciate their effort in providing mobile connectivity in remote places, they should also take care of infra upgradation and address the issue of call drops,” Prasad said at a press conference here, after assessing the performance of government undertakings India Post and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam.

He said the government would act strictly against any company, private or state-owned, that fails to address network congestion, which often lead to call drops.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) regulation on call drops, telcos were to pay customers Rs 1 per drop up to a maximum of three calls a day from January 1 this year. The companies had moved the Delhi High Court via the Cellular Operators Association of India against the regulation.

The court has asked the regulator not to take any coercive action against telecom firms until further orders.

The telcos have been protesting the call drop compensation decision of Trai saying in mobile voice transmission, call disruption cannot be completely ruled out. The government has been saying the telcos were not doing enough to upgrade infrastructure, unlike they were doing for customer acquisition.

“Telecom firms have installed 25,000 towers across India (and 2,000 in Delhi alone) in the past three-four months, after we talked about stricter actions and penalties. They should have done it earlier. Why were they waiting for the government to intervene?” asked Prasad, indicating lack of effort by the telecom companies to improve their infrastructure.

As a part of network upgradation of state-owned telecom firm, Prasad said that eight districts of Maharashtra would have next generation network in the next fiscal. The facility, which improves data and voice connectivity accessed via a landline connection, will be upgraded across India in phased manner, he added.

CUTTING THE CORD ON CALL DROPS

• According to Trai regulation on call drops, the telcos were to pay their customers Rs 1 per call drop up to a maximum of three calls a day from January 1 this year
   
• Telcos had moved the Delhi High Court via Cellular Operators Association of India against the regulation
   
• The court has asked the regulator not to take any coercive action against telecom firms until further orders
   
• The telcos have been protesting the call drop compensation decision of Trai saying in mobile voice transmission, call disruption cannot be completely ruled out
   
• The government has been saying the telcos were not doing enough to upgrade infrastructure, unlike they were doing for customer acquisition