Recommendations on call drop by mid-October: Telecom regulator

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) hopes to come out with recommendations on call drops by mid-October, its chairman R.S. Sharma said here on Thursday.

The sector regulator, which has already floated a consultation paper on this issue, has sought comments from telecom service providers by September 21 and counter comments on it by September 28. This will be followed by an open house discussion on the issue.

"I expect that by October 10-15, we will give the final recommendations in this regard," Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by Assocham.

Terming this deficiency in this service to customers "unacceptable", he said that a second information paper will be floated within two weeks time clearly stipulating the factors and compensation that may be paid to the consumer by telecom firms.

The TRAI is working with telecom service operators on checking on the reasons for call drops.

Sharma had on Wednesday said that the TRAI will conduct another test drive in the next two weeks to measure the quality of telecom services. "Almost all the telecom operators failed the quality of service drive test," he told reporters after holding a meeting with bigwigs of telecom companies, where they were apprised of the quality of services.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed serious concern over the issue of "call drops" and asked officials about steps being taken to address the issue while Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asked telecom companies to optimise networks to end this problem.