Telecom operators have set up nearly 2000 mobile towers in Delhi over the past 3 months in an effort to curb the occurrence of call drops. Almost 22279 sites have been installed across India within the same period of time.
A DoT official told PTI that network providers have added 2092 2G and 3G cell towers in Delhi. The move has resulted in the call drop rate to come down to a large extent. Bharti Airtel has seen its numbers fall from a range of 2.92% – 17.77% to 0.08% – 2.98% within 12 weeks.
Similarly, Vodafone India’s call drop incident rate has gone from 1.53% – 6.63% to 0.3% – 2.97% in Delhi. Reliance Communications, which previously had figures of 1.53% – 24.83%, is now at 0.02% – 5.15%, on average. Idea Cellular has reduced its occurrences from a range of 3.34% – 10.90% to 0.14% – 2.65%, as per the DoT.
Other than the setting up of mobile sites, telecom players are installing in-building solutions to get a handle on the call drop problem. However, the companies are complaining that the sealing of sites by local organizations like the Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) gets in the way of their efforts.
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An industry insider asserts that if the MCD closes up 1 site in a place, all the other towers in the area get affected as well. This makes it difficult for operators to offer good quality of service to their customers. Back in September this year, the top 6 telecom companies wrote a joint letter to the DoT to communicate their side of the problem.
The providers had claimed that for every 40 locations being sealed off, there was a 40% rise in call drops. The problem was acute in Delhi, where the MCD had shut down 16 sites within a week and 70 in the course of a month. The situation has begun to improve now, with even the brands accepting that its service has not been up to the mark.