Call drops: Govt says telcos not making serious efforts

Says telcos will need to find a solution from within the existing norms

With mobile operators blaming lack of towers for frequent call drops, the government today hit back saying companies are not making serious efforts to address the issue and asked them to take urgent remedial measures.

It also rejected the operators' claim that call drops were linked to lack of a national tower policy and said they would need to find a solution from within the existing norms.

"There is no linkage between call drops and tower policy. There was no policy earlier but call drops did not happen. The problem has arisen in the last seven months. They have to find a solution within the existing norms," Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said.

In a meeting with all the operators today, Garg asked them to take all necessary steps to improve services and said that "no serious efforts are being made to bring about a perceptible change".

He also said that optimisation is a continuous process and efforts need to be intensified for desirable results.

On sealing of towers, Garg told the operators that the number of towers which have been affected is too small to have a justifiable effect in terms of such frequent call drops.

Earlier in the day, telecom operators held a joint press conference wherein they blamed sealing of towers by local bodies, as also lack of national tower policy, for call drops.

Operators said about 7,000-10,000 sites are locked or shut down across the country due to various reasons.

Stating that operators need to invest in infrastructure and optimise the networks, Garg said, "This is your call, you have to find a solution, we can't give you a solution."

The Secretary further said India has a federal structure and certain powers lie with the local bodies and whatever the operators were demanding cannot be done by the government.

"You have to work hard, you cannot have whatever you said could be done," Garg said.

The operators demanded a uniform national tower policy that can be implemented across the country and wanted telecom services and infrastructure to be declared essential services.

The industry also demanded mobile sites should be allowed to be installed on government buildings.

On this matter, the Secretary told the telecom operators that steps have already been initiated for setting up of towers in such buildings and he suggested that all telcos should sit together to find an early solution to the problem.

On harmonisation of spectrum, Garg said government will do efforts to find a solution.