Call drops have come down says Telecom Minister

NEW DELHI: The instances of call drops have declined over a period of time and various steps have been taken to address the issue, according to Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha .

The telecom service providers have also been asked to improve the coverage of signal by installing more Base Transceiver Stations (BTS), he told the Lok Sabha," reported by PTI.

During Question Hour, Sinha said the instances of call drops have reduced over a period of time and measures, including establishing an Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS), have been taken to deal with the issue.

With respect to signal blind-spots in wireless network, the Minister said it is a "natural phenomenon" which may happen due to various reasons including poor radio coverage and loading of available spectrum.

Radio jammers may also result in localised signal blind-spots, he said while adding that no data is maintained by the government pertaining to signal blind-spots.

To improve the quality and coverage, telecom service providers (TSPs) have been asked to install more number of BTSs.

"The TSPs have reported that they have already installed 1,09,000 BTS across the country from July 2015 to May 2016 and 2,16,000 additional BTSs from June 2016 to February 2017.

"The TSPs have also informed that about 4,97,000 BTSs have been optimised for improvement in network performance since July 2015," Sinha said.