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Our Bureau

New Delhi , Jan 17

CELLULAR operators are unlikely to meet the deadline set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to improve the quality of service. The TRAI report for November 2005, released today, shows that the congestion levels have further worsened compared to previous months with no sign of any improvement.

According to the report, the number of cities where the level of congestion is more than benchmark has touched 404. In 201 cities the level of congestion is more than 10 per cent of the permissible limit.

TRAI had earlier issued a directive that all mobile operators should bring the congestion levels across the country to permissible levels by December 31, 2005.

The benchmark notified by TRAI for this parameter is less than 0.5 per cent. This means that out of 200 calls between two operators only one call should face congestion problem.

Though the official report for December will be released next month, indications are that the cellular operators are nowhere near achieving the set benchmark.

Cellular operators are blaming lack of proper interconnection with BSNL as the primary reason for the high congestion levels. Proper interconnection with BSNL is important since it is the largest telecom operator in the country with more than 60 million subscribers.

TRAI has been monitoring the level of congestion at the point of interconnection (POI) between various service providers on a monthly basis.

"The result of the monitoring reveals that in a number of areas, the degree of congestion between the operators is alarming. In a number of cities, the level of congestion between the networks of different operators is far more than this benchmark and the number of such places are increasing," said the TRAI report.

The POI congestion in the network is on account of inadequate junctions between the two networks.

More Stories on : Regulatory Bodies & Rulings | Telecommunications

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