The Hindu Business Line : Mobile congestion level gets better

Clear signal
Congestion levels were rising because BSNL was not being able to provide adequate interconnection to private operators.
This is the first time that congestion levels have come down ever since the telecom regulator started measuring it.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept 28

The next time you make a call using your mobile phone, the chances of landing in a congested network has just become lower.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday indicated that things are improving as far as mobile congestion levels are concerned due to better interconnection among operators. This is the first time that congestion levels have come down ever since the telecom regulator started measuring it.

“The point of interconnection congestion report analysis for the month of April 2007 to June 2007 shows that the performance of the cellular operators with respect to the congestion has improved a little in the month of June, as compared with the performance in March. The number of points of interconnection having congestion has decreased from 499 in March to 457 in June,” said the TRAI report.

Point of interconnection is the physical place where two operators link their network. Until now, congestion levels were continuously rising because the state-owned BSNL was not being able to provide adequate interconnection to private operators. Therefore call traffic between private operators’ subscribers and BSNL users were getting clogged. While this congestion is still on the higher side, the good news is that it is beginning to slide. For instance, the number of congested points of interconnection between BSNL and private operators has decreased from 337 to 312 during the three-month period. As per TRAI benchmark only one call per 200 calls should face congestion. While now there are 218 points of interconnection where 10 out of 200 calls face congestion compared to 245 earlier, there are only 151 points where the level is as high as 40 calls per 200, compared to 183 in March.

The States which are badly affected due to congestion are Bihar, Gujarat, J & K, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and other north-eastern States. A Crisil Research study had pointed out that quality of cellular service was poor because operators were not investing enough in setting up adequate infrastructure to support the exponential growth in subscriber base.