Ruling out jail option for call drop by mobile operators that has been sought by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) this week, Telecom Secretary JS Deepak on Friday said that penal power would not be one and final solution to this menace, but the Government will certainly take a view of regulator's demand.
“Business as usual cannot happen. I am not sure penal power will be one and final solution to this. In my personal opinion I do not agree that for every call drop a person has to be sent to jail. That's my personal view. It is more sophisticated and more difficult. But we will take a view on what TRAI has said,” Deepak told reporters after his first industry review meeting on Friday.
Early this week, TRAI had demanded more teeth to check call drop menace including for imposing fine of up to Rs10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives for any violation of regulatory norms.
Deepak further said that mobile operators have committed to install 60,000 towers to improve service quality. “Government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and industry has responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs20 lakh which is around Rs12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” he added.
Each operator presented his 100-day plan for improving service quality and raised issues hampering improvement in the networks. Most of the mobile service providers have frequently failed in quarterly sample call drop tests conducted by TRAI but telecom operators have contested the results saying that they comply with benchmark set by the regulator.
In the roundtable meeting, operators raised issues such as regulatory hurdles by local authorities and opposition by residents associations to installation of mobile towers.
“All top CEOs have said they will set up war rooms to address this issue. I felt that the industry has realised that the negative customer sentiment is too high so investments will not be constrained. We need to work with them to facilitate installation of mobile towers,” Deepak said.
He said that 100 mobile towers will be installed in Delhi under 100-day action plan specially in problematic areas where call drop is high.
Deepak said that Urban Development department has decided to “amend bye-laws of Delhi Development Authority which will allow installation of mobile towers in residential area”.