Call drops have been a major cause of concern both for the users and the authorities alike. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been taking a lot of interest in this issue and has been making moves in the right direction to make sure that such issues don’t persist. One of the major steps that they have taken is that they have started to tighten the noose on the service providers to install more towers and have a better infrastructure.
TRAI had approached the government with the idea of penalising the service providers who were not following the norms with Rs 1 per dropped call. Rs 3 was the upper limit for a day. However, at a later date, the Supreme court had quashed this move. The service providers also claim that this issue is not their fault.
Soon, the big players in the market started to shift their focus on network quality. Companies like Airtel went for self-regularization. It decided to follow the 25 percent lesser call drop rates at 1.5 as opposed to the 2 percent which is fixed by TRAI. This move was made after the implementation of the Open Network initiative.
The company has also started the Project Leap, which basically deals with improving the level of transparency and taking customer feedback to make sure that the network quality is better. On the Airtel website and in the myAirtel app, the whole country is divided into color-coded zones with the data for the available strength.
Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said, “Open Network is a paradigm shift in the way we engage with our customers. With this initiative, we are establishing complete transparency with regards to our mobile network and opening ourselves to customer scrutiny and feedback. For us, the network experience is paramount and Airtel customers can now take charge of network issues and be a part of the solution, rather than waiting for it to happen. Today, getting permissions to put up a network site is perhaps the biggest challenge in delivering a seamless experience to customers. We hope customers will actively come forward and help us make our network better.”
Photo Credits: Reuters
