Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has directed the Department of Telecom to look into the call drop masking technology being used by mobile service providers.

“I have taken up this issue seriously. I have directed that the department (DoT), along with Trai, should take up this issue seriously,” Prasad said when asked about the matter.

The call usually gets automatically disconnected in case of the user moving to a poor network area, making it a ‘dropped call’ under the current regulatory framework.

According to sources, the new technology ensures the call remains artificially connected until the caller or receiver decides to terminate it and the user is billed for the entire duration despite not being able to talk for full or part of the call duration.

Telecom operators are using Radio-link Technology (RlT), which is helping them mask call drops, while the consumer is being billed for the time he is on the call, although it can be said to be artificiallyconnected to a network, the sources said.

In such cases, the customer often disconnects the call himself, which is not counted in call drops. If the call in such a case is disconnected, the companies continue to charge customers.

“While RlT is helping companies improve their quality of service parameters and revenue, it is also helping them mask the dropped calls,” the sources added.

Prasad said that while his department is looking into the issue, the industry has installed about 1 lakh mobile sites in last 8-10 months to improve service quality.

“I am minister for development of telecom and also for telecom consumers. Telecom operators have done good work by expanding services in the country and it is their job to ensure quality of service is good,” Prasad said.

The Supreme Court recently quashed a rule of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which mandated telecom operators to compensate consumers Rs 1 for each call drop with upper limit at Rs 3 per day.