 "Urban Development ministry allows installation of mobile towers on govt buildings")
To resolve the menace of call drops, the urban development ministry has allowed telecom service providers to install towers/sites on government buildings.
This would help the operators in increasing the coverage area of their network, thereby improving the quality of services for mobile subscribers.
According to a senior official, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has given instructions to the officials for allowing installation of mobile towers on government buildings.
Many resident welfare associations don’t allow telecom companies to install towers in their premises due to radiation fears.
Telecom firms had asked the telecom department to allow installation of towers on central and state government buildings and on defence land.
Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also written to all state chief ministers for giving permission.
Call drop in a network can occur due to various reasons, including insufficient coverage due to paucity of mobile towers and handover failure due to network congestion on account of more users in a particular area.
The department of telecommunications has been meeting operators on a regular basis to ascertain the causes of the issue and find a solution. Operators have been asked to take immediate measures to address issues of call drops by radio frequency optimisation, installation of new sites and adding more in-building solutions.
TRAI has come out with a consultation paper on compensation to mobile users for call drops. TRAI also met CEOs of all telecom companies to find ways of resolving call drops situation.
