The Hindu Business Line : Airtel, RCom most congested networks

According to a report from the telecom regulator, the country’s largest cellular operator has also the highest number of points of interconnection where the congestion levels are beyond permissible limits. Point of interconnection is the physical place where two networks get connected.

The congestion level at such points signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network.

According to the standards prescribed by the telecom regulator a consumer should face congestion problem for only one call for every 200 calls he makes.

For Bharti, it’s 56

In the case of Bharti Airtel, which adds more than 2 million new subscribers every month on its network, there are 56 such points of interconnection spread across various cities where the congestion levels are beyond the permissible levels. Though Bharti had 83 points where its network was clogged in March 2008, it is still ranked at the number one spot as far as congestion levels are concerned.

A Bharti spokesperson said, “The POI Congestion Report analysis shows that the performance of the service providers, including us, with respect to the congestion on POIs has seen a major improvement in the month of June, 2008 as compared with the performance in March, 2008. This is despite the fact that the mobile subscriber base increased from 261.07 million in March to 286.87 million in June. This highlights the fact that various initiatives undertaken by us and the other operators to improve the level of congestion at the PoI have been quite successful. We are confident of meeting the standards set up by the authorities soon.”

RCom’s is 22

Reliance Communication’s CDMA network with 22 points of congestion is at Number 2 spot. The biggest improvement has come in Vodafone Essar’s network as the company has reduced its congested points of inter-connection from 43 in March to 19 in June 2008.

While Consumer groups have sought action against the operators, the regulator said that it could not penalise the operators for violating the quality of service norms since the matter was sub-judice in TDSAT since March 2006.

TRAI had earlier issued a show-cause notice to the operators, which was challenged by the Cellular Operators Association of India. The TDSAT has asked TRAI not to take any action until the case is heard. “The Authority is left with no option, but to wait the final decision of the TDSAT as the pending case has effectively tied the hands of the Authority from taking any steps against the service providers for ensuring quality of service being provided by the service providers,” TRAI said in a press release.

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