TRAI TO KEEP CHECK ON CALL DROPS, MAY HIKE PENALTY

Telcos could end up paying a heavier penalty for call drops as Trai would now measure call drops on the basis of data collected on the performance of telecom towers and back-end information from telcos, not from area offices of telecom companies. ››

NEW DELHI: Telcos could end up paying a heavier penalty for call drops with the telecom regulator reworking the way it assesses services being provided to India’ s 1 billion cellphone users, an official aware of the matter said on Thursday.

Infrastructure in the world’s second-largest mobile phone market is struggling to keep pace with the rising number of users and call drops continue to be a big headache for consumers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India( Tr ai) will now measure call drop son the basis of data collected on the performance of telecom towers and back-end information from tel cos, not from area offices of telecom companies as is the practice.

“Report on telecom towers will show the exact amount of activity. This will help us analyse signal strength, call-drop rate and call set-up success rate,” the government official cited above said on condition of anonymity.

A service provider is at present fined ₹50,000 for not meeting the benchmark of 2% call drops per quarter. The penalty is likely to go up manifold, the official said.

Telecom department officials say the reluctance of operators to invest in infrastructure is one of the reasons behind poor call quality. An industry estimate shows the need for investments of at least ₹50,000 crore in telecom infrastructure in the next 2-3 years. The service providers, in turn, blame it on difficulty in getting the permission for towers.

“Telecom companies can complain but if they charge consumers, they will also have to provide good services,” said an official in the telecom department who did not wish to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“Continuing to penalise telecom companies only increases litigation between them and the government,” said Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

The last time the regulator tried to penalise companies, the Supreme Court quashed Trai’s proposal that customers be paid₹ 1 for every dropped call up to a maximum of ₹ 3 a day.