TRAI conducted tests all over India, covering all major telecom operators, and most failed to comply with its benchmarks.
Most telecom operators have failed random call drop tests conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). According to the regulator, most telcos, including MTNL, have failed the tests that TRAI conducted in order to check the quality of their networks and services. TRAI’s report says that none of the telecom operators show any improvement in the Mumbai, Pune and Bhubaneswar regions. The tests were conducted between the December-January period.
TRAI’s standards say that no more than 2 percent of all voice calls on a telco’s network should be dropped. TRAI had first started its tests in June last year, with the third round being held in the December-January period. While the first two rounds were conducted over 2G networks, the third round also took 3G networks into account. The outcome shows that the state’s own MTNL is the worst offender in both Mumbai and Delhi. On its 3G network, tests showed 15.58 percent call drops in Mumbai, while it was even more in Delhi, at 23.65 percent.
Further, in Pune, call drop rates for Tata’s 3G network stood at 42.93 percent, over Idea Cellular’s 20.96 percent. On its 2G network, Idea Cellular dropped 18.97 percent calls in Pune. On the other hand, Aircel and RCom suffered the most call drops in Bhubaneswar. Airtel was compliant to the call drop benchmark on both its 2G and 3G networks in Delhi, while Idea and Vodafone were compliant only on their 3G networks, while BSNL’s 3G and Vodafone’s 2G networks dropped the most calls in Delhi. Lastly, in Kolkata, CDMA networks of MTS, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications complied to TRAI’s call drop benchmarks, while other operators failed to do so.
The call drop issue has been discussed a lot over the past year or so, with the government calling out telecom operators on poor quality of service. Operators in turn hit back, citing issues with regulations that didn’t allow them to place enough mobile towers.
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