Instances of call drop down, TRAI imposed financial
New Delhi, Mar 19 () Instances of call drop andimproper telecom network coverage have gone down and the TRAIhas imposed financial disincentive of Rs 3.29 crore on serviceproviders, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Replying to supplementary queries during Question Hour,Minister of State for Telecom Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre said therehas been a lot of improvement in call drops in the lastthree-four years and TRAI has introduced parameters fordisincentive to telecom companies and a fine of over Rs 2.5crore has been recovered from them.
He said the government has also introduced Interactivevoice response system from 3.5 crore subscribers on call dropsand feedback received from them, of which only 1.21 lakh calldrop problems have been found.
Dhotre also said that as part of the revival plan ofBSNL, 4G services will be introduced from April onwards andpreparations are on in this regard.
The minister also denied any interception of phone callby the agencies.
"We should have faith in each other and there are nocases of snooping or phone tapping. We all get together tohelp improve the services," he told the members.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Telecom Minister RaviShankar Prasad said TRAI has also introduced a revised gradedFinancial Disincentives (FD) structure for DCR parametersEffective from 1st October 2017, based on the extent to whicha TSP's (telecom service provider) performance deviates fromthe specified DCR (drop call rates) benchmark.
"During the year 2018, TRAI has imposed total financialdisincentives for not meeting benchmarks of differentparameters under QoS regulations (CMTS) to the tune of Rs 3.29crore, out of which Rs 2.73 crore has been recovered," Prasadsaid.
He said the upgradation of the network, addition of cellsites, optimization of the network at regular intervals andintroduction of new technologies are some of the steps takenby the TSPs in order to improve network performance coverageand quality of service.
The minister said significant reduction has been observedin number of complaints pertaining to Call Drops/ ImproperNetwork Coverage received on Centralised Public GrievanceRedressal And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) in Department ofTelecommunications (DoT) during last three years.