New Delhi, Jul 8 (DHNS): Irked by increasing call drops, the government on Tuesday told telecom service providers to upgrade their network or pay fine.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government will audit the network performance with the objective to improve customer service and eliminate call drops. A telephone call which is cut off due to technical reasons before the parties have finished their conversation or before either of them have hung up is known as a dropped call.
“As an immediate action, the telecom department expects the service providers to undertake a special drive for radio frequency optimisation of their networks followed by periodic optimisation as per need,” said Prasad. The stern warning comes after repeated requests by the ministry to prevent call drops fell on deaf ears. The operators had argued that they need access to more spectrum to prevent call drops.
Prasad said adequate spectrum has been provided to telecom companies to undertake a special drive for radio frequency optimisation and periodic monitoring to prevent call drops.
The minister said that he has also asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to devise a structure of penalties to be levied on the erring operators.
“We have send a request to Trai to make a structure of incentives and disincentive,” the minister said to a query on whether there will be any penalty on telecom operators for call drops.
“It is their job and responsibility to properly upgrade their network,” he said.
A special audit of quality of service parameters focused on network performance would be carried out by the Department of Telecom in all metro and capital cities to help government know the standard being maintained by operators and their requirements.
On the industry’s concern over installation of mobile towers, Prasad said: “The issue of call drop and campaign to remove BTSs (mobile towers) cannot go hand in hand. If anyone is willing to suggest any tangible evidence of adverse effect from radiation, then I am going to look in to it. The issue is not whether there is radiation or not, the issue is whether it is dangerous or not.”
The minister said that radiation rules implemented in India were far more stringent than the international standards. To get rid of the radiation excuse given by the operators, the government has also written to all states to permit the use of government buildings for installation of mobile towers.
“Kerala has permitted use of government buildings for setting up mobile phone towers. It will be great if other state governments also follow this,” Prasad tweeted.