Communications Minister to meet telcos over call drop on Nov 1

Union Communications Minister Manoj Sinha will meet the CEOs of telecom companies on November 1 to take stock of the call drop issue.

"The minister will meet telecom company Chief Executive Officers on November 1 to take stock of the call drop situation. It's a stock-taking meeting and also roadmap for the future," Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak told reporters here on Friday on the sidelines of an event.

Deepak said the sectoral regulator - Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) - has informed that there has been substantial improvement in call drop situation.

"We had a meeting in June, they (telecom service providers) gave us a 100-day plan. There has been, we believe, from TRAI figures lot of improvement in call drops. There were 54 networks which were not performing upto the standard in December 2015, and now it is down to only 19," Deepak added.

The telecom companies had given a 100-day roadmap to the government in June to improve call drop situation.

"They assured that the target for the 100-day programme, as committed to the (telecom) secretary, will be met. They indicated that from the beginning of June 10 (when the 100-day programme started), there will be addition of around 60,000 BTS (base transceiver station) in 100 days across the country, out of which 48,000 have been installed in the first 45 days," Manoj Sinha said on July 25.

The service providers have committed Rs 12,000 crore to install 60,000 BTS to address the situation by arresting call drops.

--IANS

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