Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has warned operators to improve its network in order to reduce call drops. If the companies fail to do so, it will have to face serious action from the government.
Service providers have been blaming call drops on the paucity of mobile towers in India. Prasad has dismissed these complaints by stating that it is not his job to find towers. Players must raise the quality of their offerings and accept the consequences if they don’t.
As per PTI, he thinks network brands cannot concentrate on data alone if it comes at the cost of voice calling services. He went on to confirm that government-owned entity BSNL is on the road to recovery as its user base has been rising steadily. He had expressed a similar sentiment last week, when he claimed the operator was seeing profits for the first time in 5 years.
This has been corroborated by BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava as well, who claimed the operator had posted profits of Rs 672 crore for FY15. Prasad is hoping MTNL goes the same way and manages to turn around its current situation. He asserted that the government’s main aim was to improve the health of the state-owned firm and not to privatize it.
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A few days ago, it was revealed that MTNL had requested BSNL to take over its operations and maintenance on a revenue-sharing system. A committee has been organized to debate the merits of the arrangement. The group’s decision will be announced after 2 or 3 months.
In the same interview, Prasad said he does not want to be known as a ‘call drop minister’. Furthermore, he affirmed that the government is keeping a close eye on the investment commitments which telecom companies are promising in order to upgrade its network.