Over 62% subscribers report call drop in govt survey

While telecom operators and the government have been claiming reduction in call drop levels, a survey by the Department of Telecom has revealed that a majority of the mobile subscribers are still facing the problem.

"About 2,20,935 subscribers participated in the survey out of which, about 1,38,072 (62.5 per cent) have reported call drops," the DoT said in a statement.

The survey was conducted by automated call service between December 23 and February 28, 2017, to obtain direct feedback from subscribers.

The DoT's automated call service, or Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS), made over 16.61 lakh calls to subscribers of all telecom service providers (TSPs) across the country.

"From the feedback, it has been observed that the problem of call drops is more severe indoors," the statement said.

The DoT shares feedback with telecom operators every week for taking action in a time-bound manner.

For the fortnight (Feb 15-28, 2017), telecom operators took up 43,403 feedback cases for investigation.

"After telephonic calls and SMSes to the subscribers to seek additional information on their call drop problem, 7,210 cases were identified for resolution. During the fortnight, 2,467 cases were resolved through optimisation, rectifying hardware and power problems, through field visits etc," the statement said.

The DoT said that on cumulative basis, since the launch of IVRS, 9,328 cases have been resolved through this initiative.

In addition, 5,529 cases which were not related to call drops but other issues like data, roaming, billing, MNP, mobile device etc which have been identified by the concerned telecom operators for taking necessary action.

"About 603 new sites/boosters have also been planned by TSPs for installation in due course. DoT Task Force is also meeting with the TSPs once every month to discuss various issues related to the IVRS system. Regular reviews are also being held by the office of Minister (Manoj Sina) about the operation of the IVRS system," the statement said.

The telecom operators have installed about 2,12,917 additional BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations or mobile sites) across the country from June 2016 to February 2017.