Trai may amend ways to measure call drop data

Leaving no stone unturned to resolve the menace of call drops, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is looking to amend ways for measuring call drop data aiming to get a real picture of the situation.

"In some cases, the average hides the actual data. It is necessary to slice and dice the data. We need to have further data analytics to assess the root cause of call drops but we will not wait for data analytics to be completed and come out with a consultation paper on what should be done in the area of call drops," Trai Chairman R S Sharma told Business Standard. The consultation paper on the issue of call drops is expected to be out within next 15 days.

Also, Trai has been monitoring the performance for service providers against the quality of service benchmarks for the various parameters through quarterly performance monitoring reports and the call drop rate should be less than two per cent, according to the Trai benchmark.

But, the average of the total data collected from a city/circle most of the times show telcos are meeting the benchmarks whereas in actual many localities individually, the call drop rates are much higher and don't meet the required norm, according to experts. This makes it necessary for Trai to have a relook at the data.

Also, Trai has also written to all the telecom operators to check the various tariff plans being offered by them and ascertain if any, tariff plan, benefits them in a call drop situation. "The benefit of telecom operators is not the only issue here, customer inconvenience is a much larger issue," he said.

Last week, Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg had said there are certain tariff plans where customers get some free minutes and the billing is minute-based, which need to be examined whether operators are making money out of this. When asked prima facie who has to be blamed for call drops, Sharma said, "It is difficult to make a pronouncement on who is the culprit but we are studying the data and also looking at disincentive mechanism for call drops, which will also be addressed through a consultation process."