Explained | TRAI’s mechanism for preventing call drops

Two stringent parameters for assessing call drops namely, Drop Call Rate (DCR) Spatial Distribution and Temporal Distribution measures have been prescribed under ‘The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017’.  

The story so far: The recently-concluded second part of the Budget session of the Parliament had Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responding to questions on call drops. Member of Parliament from Narasaraopet (Andhra Pradesh) Sri Krishna Devarayulu Lavu and Karakat (Bihar) MP Mahabali Singh raised concerns on call drop incidents in the country. Separately they asked the Telecom Minister if the government maintained any data of such occurrences and the measures taken to mitigate them. Further, the Karakat MP asked the Minister to apprise the house if the government proposed to cancel the license of telecom regulators failing to address the concerns. The Telecom Minister replied in negative. 

Mr. Vaishnaw informed the House about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) monitoring mechanism for telecom service providers (TSPs) specific to their Licensed Service Area (LSA) as a whole. This is done using Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) submitted by the service providers against the benchmarks for quality parameters laid down by the regulator. The report for the quarter ending December 2021 noted that all TSPs excluding BSNL in West Bengal LSA were in compliance to the benchmark.  

TRAI has prescribed two stringent parameters for assessing call drops in mobile networks, they are Drop Call Rate (DCR) pertaining to Spatial Distribution and Temporal Distribution. The mentioned parameters are prescribed under ‘The Standards of Quality of Service of Basic Telephone Service (Wireline) and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2017’.  

Spatial Distribution measures prescribe that at least 90% of cellphones in the network should perform better than the benchmark figure of ≤ 2% on at least 90% of days.  

The Temporal Distribution measure adhering to a benchmark figure of ≤ 3%, require that at least 97% of the cellphones perform better than the benchmark figure on at least 90% of the days.  

Further, the telecom regulator has an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) for obtaining direct feedback from subscribers on call drops. According to the Telecom Minister’s written reply tabled in the Lok Sabha, around 5.67 crore subscribers have individually contacted since December 2016. Further, 73.61 lakh subscribers have participated in the survey. The feedback received is shared with service providers for initiating corrective actions in a time bound manner. 1.73 lakh individual cases of call drops have been resolved and around 7,956 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) have been installed by the service providers with respect to complaints received via IVRS. 

In simple terms, as pointed out by consulting firm Gartner, BTS sends and receives radio signals to and from mobile devices, converting them to digital signals that it passes on the network to route to other terminals in the network or to the Internet.