Vodafone, Aircel Not Meeting Benchmarks for Call Drops in Delhi

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday that Vodafone and Aircel are not meeting some benchmarks for call drops in Delhi whereas Airtel and state-run MTNL are within the limits.

"Trai has reported that MTNL is meeting all the benchmarks for all the network related parameters for 2G and 3G services ... Vodafone and Aircel are not meeting the benchmark of less than or equal to 3 percent for the parameter 'worst affected cells having more that 3 percent traffic channel (TCH) drop," Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

The minister cited the performance monitoring report of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the period ending December 31, 2014 to share the data on call drop rate.

Trai measures performance on call drop through two parameters less than or equal to 2 percent call drops and worst affected cells having more than 3 percent TCH drop.

"Trai has further reported that all the service providers are meeting benchmark related to call drops for 3G services.

For 2G services, all the service providers in Delhi service area are meeting the benchmark of less than or equal to 2 per cent for the parameter call drop rate," Prasad said.

India's telecom regulator is likely to soon announce new parameters for improvement of quality of service for telecom operators to tackle call dropping and other problems being faced by customers, Trai chairman Rahul Khullar had said last month.