Telecom companies unite on call drops

However, the Central government was unimpressed by the telecom companies arguments and asked them to take urgent remedial measures. “Roadblocks in installation of cell sites and arbitrary shutting down of operational ones is leading to network congestion and spotty coverage,” said Idea Cellular MD Himanshu Kapania in a press conference which was attended by the heads of all telecom players.

He said that in Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai among others, 10,000 mobile towers have been made non-operational due to issues faced with the authorities.

Telecom operators said that while the telecom department had come out with a policy on mobile towers, only two states Kerala and Assam were following it. They said that the telecom sector should be given statutory essential services status nationally.

On likelihood of the call drop issue further deteriorating going forward, Vodafone India MD and CEO Sunil Sood said: “If you don’t get a tower policy, yes, it will.”

However, the Centre in a meeting with the operators asked them to find a solution 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.

The telecom secretary asked operators to take all necessary steps to improve services and said that “no serious efforts are being made to bring about a perceptible change”. On sealing of towers, the secretary 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.