Trai chief asks telcos to improve service quality, report call drop data at state level too

Telecom regulator Trai has asked telcos to report call drop and service quality data at state level, as the regulator instructed operators to immediately improve quality of service and connectivity across the country.

Trai chief P D Vaghela met representatives of telecom companies, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, on Friday to review service quality, and asked operators to take necessary steps to reduce call drops.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has made it clear to operators that it will tighten service quality benchmarks, for which a consultation process will be initiated. Vaghela told reporters that Trai will make the service quality standards more stringent.

To start with, Trai will monitor call drop data at the state level too, immediately. At present, the data is collected LSA (licensed service area)-wise and averaged quarterly. This makes it difficult to pin-point problems, and patchy networks in smaller states.

The reporting of data at state level, and at some point perhaps, district level too, is bound to improve service quality.