TRAI plans drive tests for call drops in Jan

Telecom regulator TRAI will again begin drive tests in January to assess call drop and other network issues of various operators, including newcomer Reliance Jio.

“Drive tests are going to start next month. We should have had it in the fourth quarter, that is December, but there were delays due to some issue with our agency...Those are being sorted out and we will definitely have drive test in January,” TRAI Chairman RS Sharma told PTI.

Highways included

Recalling that the last round of drive tests were in 12 cities, Sharma said this time around, they would be conducted in “at least those 12 cities”.

“There may be additional areas, and also maybe, some highways...This will be the first time we may be covering the highways,” Sharma said.

Asked if the new operator Reliance Jio will also be part of the drive test this time, he said, “Yes, sure. Jio will be there.”

According to TRAI’s analytics portal, drive tests were conducted in Amritsar in August-September, and in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Thiruvananthapuram in May-June.

While the telecom operators submit Performance Monitoring Reports to TRAI every quarter, the regulator also undertakes audit and assessment of service quality through independent agencies. The audit agencies conduct sample ‘Drive tests’ across various cities in the country, as part of audit and assessment of the operators’ performance.

The drive tests assess the performance of networks on various quality benchmarks, including call set-up success rate, call drop rate, blocked calls and Radio Frequency (RF) Coverage.

Playing tough

Over the last few months, both telecom regulator and Department of Telecom have toughened their stance on service quality issues such as call drops and call failures.

In October, TRAI had recommended imposition of ₹1,050 crore penalty each for Airtel and Vodafone, and ₹950 crore for Idea Cellular, for denying interconnect to Jio, after taking note of the high rate of call failures and congestion at interconnect points for the new operator.

The Telecom Department has been calling for regular meetings with CEOs of telcos to review the call drop situation, an issue that has been troubling mobile phone users since a long time.

Yesterday, in an attempt to tackle the call drop menance, the DoT also announced the launch of an Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) system at multiple locations, including Delhi and Mumbai, to obtain direct feedback from subscribers on call quality.