Trai extends date for comments on priority call routing

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today extended the last date for receiving comments on priority call routing in mobile networks for persons engaged in response and recovery work.

The Trai had on November 8 sought comments from stakeholders on pre-consultation paper on priority call routing during emergencies like natural calamities and terror attacks.

The written comments from the stakeholders were sought by November 30, 2011.

"Keeping in view the request of the stakeholders for extension of time for sending their comments and also the importance of the issue, all the stakeholders may now submit their written comments by December 20, 2011," Trai said in a statement.

The pre-consultation paper focuses on the network congestion issues and is aimed at understanding the basic minimum arrangements that can be worked out and put in place to ensure that the network congestion bottlenecks are soothed out.

According to Trai, during the July 13, 2011, Mumbai bomb blasts congestion in the city's mobile phone network was reported.

The telecom regulator also noted that the two main elements of communication system failure during a crisis -- loss of infrastructure and overload congestion which occurs when usage peaks to a level where systems are unable to cope and communication cannot be established.