 "Telcos to invest Rs 12,000 cr to check call drops")
Telecom operators have committed to invest Rs 12,000 crore within the next three months to install 60,000 towers and put an end to mobile call drops menace.
Major companies were called by the department of telecom (DoT) on Friday to discuss the issue and improve service quality. Their stated commitment was announced by DoT secretary J S Deepak.
“Government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and the industry has a responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs 20 lakh which is around Rs 12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” Deepak told reporters after his first review meeting with industry players.
“The main agenda of the meeting was to find out what operators would be doing in the next 100 days to address the issue,” said Rajan Mathews, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India, the lobby group of GSM service providers.
Four main areas were discussed, he said. The first was the number of towers operators will set up in the next three months and the needed investment. The industry, he added, invests $2-3 billion every quarter on towers and technology upgradation in the normal course of business.
The second was the investments that operators are looking at in new technologies, to ensure network optimisation and enable automatic detection of problem areas. The third was the interference issue. “There are areas where we are dealing with interference due to illegal repeaters being put up. Sometimes, there is interference in border areas coming from neighbouring countries. There is also interference between operators, when new ones set up network infrastructure,” said Mathews.
The fourth area was challenges faced by operators in network rollout. This covers confrontation (ongoing) with local authorities and municipal bodies — not giving telcos permissions on time, shutting down sites and charging extremely high fees for putting up towers. Sources in the sector said DoT plans to look for 100 new sites in Delhi for telcos. Deepak said urban development department has decided to amend by-laws of Delhi Development Authority which will allow installation of mobile towers in residential area. “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 added. Vodafone’s Sood said it was a “very collaborative meeting to resolve industry issues”.
Penal powers to Trai not a solution: DoT secy
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak on Friday said penal powers to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) cannot be “one and final solution” for call drops. After its earlier direction asking telcos to pay consumers for each dropped call was quashed by the Supreme Court, Trai had asked for powers to impose a fine of up to Rs 10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives. “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,” Deepak said.
Major companies were called by the department of telecom (DoT) on Friday to discuss the issue and improve service quality. Their stated commitment was announced by DoT secretary J S Deepak.
“Government believes in the telecom sector. The quality of service must improve and the industry has a responsibility. They have committed 60,000 towers. Each tower cost about Rs 20 lakh which is around Rs 12,000 crore. The industry will make this investment in next three months,” Deepak told reporters after his first review meeting with industry players.
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Representatives of all telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel chief for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, Vodafone India head Sunil Sood, Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania and Reliance Jio Infocomm MD Sanjay Mashruwala, were present in the meeting.
“The main agenda of the meeting was to find out what operators would be doing in the next 100 days to address the issue,” said Rajan Mathews, director-general, Cellular Operators Association of India, the lobby group of GSM service providers.
Four main areas were discussed, he said. The first was the number of towers operators will set up in the next three months and the needed investment. The industry, he added, invests $2-3 billion every quarter on towers and technology upgradation in the normal course of business.
The second was the investments that operators are looking at in new technologies, to ensure network optimisation and enable automatic detection of problem areas. The third was the interference issue. “There are areas where we are dealing with interference due to illegal repeaters being put up. Sometimes, there is interference in border areas coming from neighbouring countries. There is also interference between operators, when new ones set up network infrastructure,” said Mathews.
The fourth area was challenges faced by operators in network rollout. This covers confrontation (ongoing) with local authorities and municipal bodies — not giving telcos permissions on time, shutting down sites and charging extremely high fees for putting up towers. Sources in the sector said DoT plans to look for 100 new sites in Delhi for telcos. Deepak said urban development department has decided to amend by-laws of Delhi Development Authority which will allow installation of mobile towers in residential area. “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 added. Vodafone’s Sood said it was a “very collaborative meeting to resolve industry issues”.
Penal powers to Trai not a solution: DoT secy
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak on Friday said penal powers to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) cannot be “one and final solution” for call drops. After its earlier direction asking telcos to pay consumers for each dropped call was quashed by the Supreme Court, Trai had asked for powers to impose a fine of up to Rs 10 crore on operators and jail term of up to two years for their executives. “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,” Deepak said.