With mobile operators blaming lack of towers for frequent call drops, the Government on Monday hit back saying companies are not making serious efforts to address the issue and asked them to take urgent remedial measures.
The Government also rejected the operators’ claim that call drops were linked to lack of a national tower policy and said they would need to find a solution from within the existing norms.
“There is no linkage between call drops and tower policy. There was no policy earlier but call drops did not happen. The problem has arisen in the last seven months. They have to find a solution within the existing norms,” Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said.
In a meeting with all the operators on Monday, Garg asked them to take all necessary steps to improve services and said that ‘no serious efforts are being made to bring about a perceptible change’.
He also said that optimisation is a continuous process and efforts need to be intensified for desirable results. On sealing of towers, Garg told the operators that the number of towers which have been affected is too small to have a justifiable effect in terms of such frequent call drops.
Earlier in the day, telecom operators held a joint press conference wherein they blamed sealing of towers by local bodies, as also lack of national tower policy, for call drops. At a joint press conference, all telecom operators and industry associations demanded that there should be a uniform tower policy that can be implemented across the country.
“We need a uniform national tower policy which can be implemented nationally and not just guidelines,” Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania told reporters here.
While Vodafone India MD & CEO Sunil Sood said Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already come out in favour of the industry for installing more sites and also allayed fears with regard to radiation threat. “He has also requested municipalities and State Governments to implement the uniform policy so that more towers come. Unless more towers come, problems of call drops and other issues faced by the customers always happen,” Sood added.
When asked about giving compensation to customers against dropped calls, Sood said pricing decisions are taken by individual operators. “let’s understand customers will choose which operator they like the best and they are free to choose so. Pricing decisions are individual operator discussions,” he added.
Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) MD & CEO Gopal Vittal said the operators have made massive investments in the sector to provide services and the industry is not going to shy away for making further investments. “For us the real challenge is to improve quality of services, that is the journey we are on,” Vittal said.
Operators said about 7,000-10,000 sites are locked or shut down across the country due to various reasons. Stating that operators need to invest in infrastructure and optimise the networks, Garg said, “This is your call, you have to find a solution, we can’t give you a solution.”
The Secretary further said India has a federal structure and certain powers lie with the local bodies and whatever the operators were demanding cannot be done by the Government. “You have to work hard, you cannot have whatever you said could be done,” Garg said.
The industry also demanded mobile sites should be allowed to be installed on the Government buildings. On this matter, the Secretary told the telecom operators that steps have already been initiated for setting up of towers in such buildings and he suggested that all telcos should sit together to find an early solution to the problem.
The industry sought additional spectrum and harmonisation of airwaves to improve capacity, as also demanded they be allowed to install towers on the Government buildings.
The industry cited several challenges being faced during installation of sites due to different reasons including state bodies’ actions against towers without prior notices, restrictions by municipalities, sealing orders, power supply issues and difficulties in getting clearances for installing sites.