In a month or so, mobile phone users may not have to stop their conversations mid-way if the Centre’s renewed efforts tackle to call drops fructify.

Telecom operators have promised the government on Wednesday that they would try their best to address the issue within a month or 45 days from now. The government could penalise telcos — as a last resort — if the problem is not resolved in the next 45 days, a senior official in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told BusinessLine.

The official added that the penalty, if any, may amount to ₹50 crore. “The issue has become serious, and since the Prime Minister also expressed concern on Tuesday, a review meeting with senior officials of DoT, including Secretary Rakesh Garg and MTNL and BSNL chiefs, was held by the Minister (of Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad) on Wednesday,” the senior official said.

Network optimisation Officials said cell tower optimisation could be a way to check call drops. Network optimisation is a technique that intelligently manages a site, using distributed antenna systems and tower mounted amplifiers to improve a user’s experience, and saves the expense of building new cell sites/base stations.

For example, if five people are using a network from the same tower at the same time, and two move out, the operator can transfer the unused airwaves to a nearby tower or next tower, where usage is higher. However, telecom operators said without more tower sites and sufficient spectrum, they cannot invest more on technology.

“The lack of availability of a sufficient quantum of globally harmonised spectrum in contiguous form is the biggest impediment to the deployment of wireless technologies in the access network,” said a leading operator.

According to DoT officials, while the companies are shifting their newly acquired spectrums to data services, voice services are getting affected. This should not be the case if the companies invest on network optimising technologies.

This did not escape Communications Minister Prasad’s notice. On Wednesday he tweeted: “Telecom operators must reinforce their network to curb call drops. Voice should not become casualty for promoting data use.”

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Published on August 26, 2015