TRAI urges operators to improve quality of telecom services

New Delhi -- Facing a huge list of complaints including call drops and congestion, the Telecom Regulator has asked the operators to improve interconnection and stem further deterioration of phone services.

''In the last two years, there has been an exponential growth in cellular mobile services. However, the provision of interconnection has not kept pace with this growth, leading to an increase in inter-network congestion and poor quality of service to the customers,'' TRAI pointed out.

The regulator has noted that the network conditions have also deteriorated due to the inability of the mobile operators to set up adequate towers and cell sites in cities.

TRAI released a report on this problem with specific reference to Lutyen's Delhi on 1st September, 2005 and would shortly release a report on this problem vis-a-vis other cities of the country.

Presently there are 47 million fixed line connections and 65 million mobile connections. In the fixed line arena, BSNL and MTNL are the incumbents in their respective areas of operation and continue to enjoy the dominant service provider status in the domain of fixed line services.

For example, BSNL controls 79 percent of fixed line share in the country. On the other hand, in the mobile telephony space, Airtel controls 21.4% subscriber base followed by Reliance with
20.3%, BSNL with 18.6%, HUTCH with 14.7% subscriber base (as per June 2005 data).

Interconnection has to be available between all the operators. From the numbers and the market shares indicated above, it is evident that when it comes to calls between mobile and fixed line customers and vice versa, connectivity of all the networks with BSNL in particular becomes crucial.

In the case of mobile to mobile calls, interconnectivity of various networks with each other and in particular with those who have a large market share becomes important.