65,000 cellular sites installed to arrest call drops: Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi, Feb 24: Telecom service providers have installed 65,000 cellular sites in the last six months in 2G and 3G services across the country to arrest call dropping, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"During the last six months, around 20,000 additional sites have been added for 2G (GSM) services across India. Similarly around 45,000 sites have been added for 3G services," Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha.

He also said the government has actively worked in recent months to reduce the instances of call drops and further improve the quality of mobile network coverage.

"The government has continued to facilitate the availability of government land and buildings for further installations by the service providers and has been creating awareness to dispel the potential fear due to EMF (electro-magnetic field) radiations on human health," the minister said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recently notified regulations that mandate a compensation at Re.1 per call drop per subscriber who has experienced call drops during the day. It is provided that a maximum of three call drops per day in a given network may be compensated by the service provider for each subscriber.

"While certain financial penalties have also been imposed by TRAI on the defaulting service providers, the case to provide compensation to each subscriber is currently sub judice at High Court of Delhi. The judgement on the matter is reserved," Prasad added.

IANS