Telecom companies promise to look into call drops, improve service

Flooded with complaints from customers and Parliamentarians on call drops, all the telecom service providers (TSPs) on Monday assured to take necessary measures to bring transparency into the billing system and improve the overall quality of telecom services in the shortest possible time.

The service providers have assured to look into billing complaints on priority basis and set up a transparent system to educate customers about various tariffs being charged so that the billing complaints are minimised, a Department of Telecommunications statement said.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had recently told BusinessLine that he had asked the Telecom Secretary to call all telecom players to discuss the issue of call drops.

A meeting of all the TSPs was held in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), chaired by Rakesh Garg, Secretary (DoT) and Chairman, Telecom Commission. Garg briefed the representatives of TSPs about the falling perception in the public with regard to poor quality of telecom services in the country in general and with special emphasis on degrading quality in Metros.

It was indicated to the TSPs that the public in general is highly dissatisfied with frequent and heavy call drops during the calls throughout the day and not confined to peak calling hours which shows poor quality of the telecom networks.

The TSPs were also told about the perception that such call drops are deliberate attempts by the TSPs to have multiple charging and consequent commercial gain.

To improve the quality of the network to reduce frequent call drops, it was emphasised that TSPs should optimise their radio frequency network extensively in a regular and routine matter.

It was also noticed that the billing by TSPs is not transparent and there are frequent changes in the package rates, contrary to the initially agreed-upon package, without any consent of the customer. In case of international roaming, TSPs do not have any warning system about the tariffs to be charged for various applications.

For example, data download has resulted in many complaints of heavy charging from customers.

There have been frequent complaints of charging even though the customer has already disconnected or has not used the services of the TSPs, it was noted.

The TSPs therefore assured to look into such complaints on a priority basis.

The TSPs also highlighted the delay in acquisition of new sites for additional towers because of fear of electro magnetic radiation in the public, closure of existing tower sites because of local bodies’ regulations and delay in getting permission from local bodies for laying/repair of cables.

The DoT Secretary said such issues should be highlighted through seminars and public meetings that there are no harmful effects of tower radiations.

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