In a bid to put a stop to the frustrations of call drops, telecom operators have come up with a multi-pronged strategy, including a 100-day plan to improve their service quality.
The plan includes investing ₹12,000 crore to set up 60,000 new towers and the use of technology to optimise network performance.
This was disclosed by the telecom companies at a meeting with JS Deepak, Secretary, Department of Telecom, on Friday. Chief executives of major operators, including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Reliance Jio and Vodafone, assured the DoT that urgent measures will be taken to improve the quality of services.
The Secretary told reporters that the Department will review after three months, and if call drops persist, the Centre will set up a ‘war room’ to identify problem areas and companies will be ordered to find a solution. There was a clear realisation that while the data in many areas have shown an improvement over the last six months, the quality of services is not satisfactory, he said.
In terms of technology, operators have promised multiple actions. Around 1.50 lakh towers would be automated, which means an engineer doesn’t have to go to a tower for trouble-shooting, which can be done remotely.
On its part, the Centre will enhance its ongoing work with local authorities and resident welfare associations to enable erection of new towers.
Checking radiation levelsThe DoT will launch an electro-magnetic field portal in the next 30 days to help residents check if the radiations levels of base stations in their locality meet the prescribed norms.
“The idea is, ultimately, to persuade RWAs, municipal bodies and citizens to permit new towers to come up in their areas. You need towers there just as you require tanks for 24x7 water supply,” Deepak said. On TRAI’s proposal to impose fines of up to ₹10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives for call-drops, he said, “I am not sure penal power will be a solution to this”