Taking a stance, the government on Monday asked the telecom companies to resolve the call drop issues at the earliest by optimising the technology that they have. It also asked them to continue with efforts for better usage of towers.

The telecom operators (TSPs) said the government needs to come out with an ‘implementable uniform tower policy’ so that more towers can be installed in government buildings and residential colonies. Many towers were forced to shut down in some of the government buildings/ areas.

However, the government countered this and said a few towers were shut down, so such excuses should not be a reason for call drop issues and companies are unnecessarily blaming it on lack of towers.

“Tower policy has no role to play for such problems (call drops). This is not a correct shield and the problem has increased over the last few months. There was no policy earlier but call drops did not happen. They have to find a solution within the existing norms,” Rakesh Garg, Secretary, Department of Telecom, told reporters here.

‘Invest in technology’ He said everything cannot be solved through a policy or law, and companies have to invest in technology and optimise their resources for better usage of their spectrums.

“Everything you (TSPs) wish cannot happen,” he said, adding that “this is a serious problem, but no serious efforts are being made to bring about a perceptible change”.

The TSPs said over 10,000 cell sites have been made non-operational across major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, due to various reasons.

All the CEOs and MDs of the TSPs including Gopal Vittal of Airtel, Himanshu Kapania of Idea Cellular, Vivek Sood of Uninor, Arvind Bali of Videocon and Sunil Sood of Vodafone met Garg seeking for uniform guidelines for cell sites and right of way across the telecom circles.

Roadblocks in installation of cell sites and arbitrary shutting down of operational ones are leading to network congestion and spotty coverage, further resulting in inconvenience for the customers, they said.

As part of the industry bodies — Cellular Operators Association of India, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India and Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association – they asked for the government’s support to address the issues.

“It is key to reiterate the importance of the building a superior telecom infrastructure and it is the responsibility of the entire ecosystem to ensure that there is a conducive environment created for the same,” according to Ashok Sud, Secretary General, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India.

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