No significant improvement in call drop issue: Trai

New Delhi, Oct 15: Regulator Trai today said there is no significant improvement in the call drop issue in Mumbai and Delhi as operators are lagging on various fronts in meeting the standards.

At a time when telcos and government are claiming that call drop issue is improving, the regulator has said that in Mumbai, no operator is meeting the benchmark while in Delhi three top players Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel are found to be lagging in offering good quality services.

As per data shared by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), call drops on network of Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices have improved in Delhi.

"In Mumbai none of the operators are meeting the prescribed benchmark, there is marginal improvement in some of the operators, while in Delhi some of the operators have improved the benchmark and three operators are still not meeting the benchmark," TRAI said in a statement.

However, problem on Aircel and Vodafone network has further deteriorated in the national capital. Airtel has improved the quality but it is still far away from the set parameters.

In case of Mumbai, none of the opertars are meeting the benchmark pertaining to call drops. The data shows that there has been some improvement in call drop on network of Aircel, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices (GSM) in Mumbai, while the problem has further worsened on network of Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance Communications (GSM).

The regulator found that only Tata Teleservices in Delhi and Airtel in Mumbai are offering voice quality as per set standard. "In Delhi, most of the operators have improved their quality though only one operator was able to meet the benchmark," TRAI said. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said recently that call drop issue is starting to improve.

The Minister named telecom operators like Airtel, Aircel, Idea, Vodafone and Tata Tele among those having contained the problem and said nearly half of the defective mobile sites have been fixed to address the menace.

The regulator had in June and July conducted drive tests in Mumbai and Delhi, which showed unsatisfactory network quality. TRAI than convened a meeting of all telecom operators to improve quality of network. To assess the improvement, TRAI had undertaken repeat drive test in Mumbai and Delhi on September 27 and 28, 2015 to assess improvements.

PTI