JOIN USMost of us have encountered a call drop when an established connection is suddenly lost. Jagannath Kamath, sales and operations lead in NOmadly, recalls redialling phone numbers over and over again for a stable connection due to call drops, despite using the best service provider in the market.
He says call drops will take a toll on both personal and professional life in the garden City if not addressed effectively. The government’s awakening from a deep slumber to promote better network connectivity has put telecom companies in a fix, as they have been concentrating more on data traffic than on voice networks so far.
One solution proposed has been to increase the number of mobile towers. But mobile subscribers here have different views on this.
The towers are seen as ‘life threatening’ and are not favoured. A reason they cite is health hazards caused due to radiations. Others say the towers are beauty-killers and that the City is losing its cherished fauna because of them.
Deepthi Kamath, an HR professional, points out another reason behind network related issues – increased usage of 3G network. When the 2G and 3G mobile networks are channelised appropriately, call drops can be reduced, she opines.
Installing additional towers does not make any sense, says Mithun Holla, a software engineer. Identifying the increase in the number of service providers as the cause of call drops, he suggests, “Selecting one or two service providers – which have best coverage – for each state would be sufficient.”
Supporting the suggestion to compensate customers per call drop, Smitha Karthik, an employee of Mindtree, says, “Mobile networks could consider the possibility of sharing space with other operators.”
Looking at Bengaluru’s space, Deepika Upadhyaya, architect, says, “The City’s growth map must be studied and better planning is needed to install towers with efficient positioning.” Approving of high-rise government buildings as spaces to install towers, she adds that a check in the number of network providers is a must. Echoing the concern over the City’s beauty, she is apprehensive that mobile towers are “eyesores” that would reshape Bengaluru’s skyline.
D Narayana Swamy, former superintending engineer at Doordarshan, says the radiation from the towers could be dangerous only when the operators – under pressure to perform better – increase the power output to the antennae on towers to bridge the network gap between mobiles towers placed far away from each other.
Further, as Smitha says, illegal mobile towers as well as faulty towers should be either removed or used to the advantage of the operators. Customer satisfaction, which is supposed to be a top priority for telecom operators, was neglected until the warning of penalty per call drop was issued. The more the investment in bridging the network gap the better the communication.
“The judgement to compensate the user for call drops should act as a motivator for telecom companies to figure out a sustainable solution,” notes Pramod Manjunath, a software engineer at Practo.
Instead of increasing the number of mobile towers, working with available resources is what Bengalureans favour, as they are cautious of health hazards and impending costs. Addressing loopholes in the system seems to be a better way to tackle call drops in the City that are growing at the blink of an eye.