Government instructs telecom companies to resolve call drop issue
Posted on: 18/Aug/2015 12:52:44 PM
Call drops are severe these days. The reason for this is a number of factors - from inadequate availability of spectrum (airwaves that carry telecom signals), sub-optimal utilization of the available spectrum, court orders shutting down telecom towers on fears that the radiation they emit causes cancer, lack of investments by telecom companies in new telecom towers to address a rising subscriber population to regulatory hurdles have combined to make life difficult for consumers.
Telecom operators and the government on Monday found themselves on a collision course over the growing call-drop menace. While top telcos publicly said they were not to be blamed and criticized the government for not helping them install more towers, a top telecom department official chided operators for not making any serious attempt to resolve the issue.
Telecom secretary Garg bluntly told the operators that they had made no serious efforts to resolve the issue and that they were not spending enough on optimizing their networks.
DoT has urged telecom operators to devise in-building solutions in order to improve connectivity. But telcos said for that to happen, the government needed to formulate a policy that would make in-building telecom services essential like other utilities.
