Telecom Minister writes to CMs for installation of towers in state govt buildings

NEW DELHI: In order to fix the call drop issue, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has written to the Chief Ministers for permitting the state government buildings for installation of towers, a model which has been adopted by the Kerala government.

Even the Department of Post has been directed to do so in a transparent manner.

The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has said that the government is taking proactive measures to address the issue of call drops.

“Way back on April 27, 2015, the Secretary Telecom took a meeting of all operators, directing them to improve the condition,” an official statement said.

Even the Department of Post has been directed to do so in a transparent manner. All these initiatives have been taken in last three to four months.

The government is monitoring all these efforts on a weekly to 10 days basis with all the operators. In the entire country a special audit was done to adjudge their performance.

Out of 34,600 cells operating poorly, about 16,962 cells have improved and the rest are in progress. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also been requested to consider recommending incentives and disincentives for operators for call drops.

In Bihar in particular, in the 7th phase of BSNL expansion, 1,150 2G BTS have been planned out of which 620 BTS have been installed and working. Against 228 3G BTS in Bihar, 120 have been commissioned and become operational. An expert team of BSNL is undertaking field visits frequently to assess the situation.

Under monitoring of the Department other private operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc, are also reinforcing their network in Bihar by undertaking capacity addition and installing new towers. Situation has started to improve in Bihar and other parts of the country and will be monitored for further improvement as a constant process. Our government is committed.

Recently, TRAI Chairman RS Sharma has said that telecom regulator is floating second information paper within two weeks time clearly stipulating the factors and compensation that may be paid to the consumer by the telecom companies.

“The regulator has asked stakeholders to send in suggestions by September 21 while counter-arguments need to be submitted by September 28. TRAI will submit its final recommendations till October 15,” he had said.