Aiming To Reduce Call Drop Rate By Another 8% By December: Telecom Minister
Efforts are on to reduce call drop rate by another 8 percent, says Manoj Sinha
Call drop rate in the country has come down by 8 percent in past year and the government is making efforts to reduce it further by a similar margin in the next few months, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Friday.
“We have set a target to reduce it by another 8 percent by the end of this year,” Sinha told reporters after a review meeting on call drops.
Citing latest data released by the telecom regulator and the Department of Telecommunication, Sinha said there has been improvement on the call drop front during their review period.
In July 2016, the minister had met telecom operators to come up with ways to tackle call drops. They had set a 100-day and a 1-year plans to resolve the issue.
Telecom operators met the target set for them. In 100 days, telecom companies installed 60,000 BTSes (base stations) and 3.49 lakh BTSes were installed in one year.Manoj Sinha, Telecom Minister
Sinha also said that telecom operators are facing resistance from people in installing mobile towers, specially in Delhi and Mumbai.
“Even after necessary approvals from the government, telecom operators are unable to install mobile towers. They are not getting space to install mobile towers as required. DoT secretary and other department officials will coordinate with other government departments. NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Corporation) will make available government buildings for installation of base stations,” Sinha said.
He said telecom operators are also facing similar issues in different parts of the country.