Providing quality services a responsibility: Bharti official

With the government threatening penal action against mobile operators for persistent call drops, a top Bharti group official today said the industry is not shying away from its responsibility and it is committed to providing quality services.
"There is absolutely no shying away of responsibility on this (quality of services)...We as an industry are committed to this," Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Akhil Gupta said.
Bharti Enterprises is the promoter group entity of country's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel.
Call drops have become more frequent in recent months and the regulator TRAI is mulling compensation by operators to consumers for poor services. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also expressed concern over the problem and had asked the industry to fix the issue.

Gupta added the industry has already invested Rs 3 lakh crore in various spectrum auctions and will further invest to improve the quality of services.
"On behalf of the industry, I would like to assure that this industry will invest whatever it takes, having invested Rs 3 lakh crore already in various spectrum auctions...There is absolutely no shying away of making more investments to improve quality of services," Gupta, who is also Executive Chairman of tower firm Bharti Infratel, said.

Gupta complimented the government for providing support on various issues concerning the sector.
"The support the government has given to us, particularly in the last 15 months, like spectrum auctions as spectrum is a lifeline of this industry, but let me particularly point out on the support given to us on passive infrastructure is absolutely exemplary," he said.

Gupta added the Department of Telecom (DoT) has come out with guidelines as to what the tower policy of the country should be, the Minister personally has written letters to all state chief ministers requesting government buildings for putting up telecom towers.
"This just conveys the intention of the government as to how serious they are," he added.