 "Ravi Shankar Prasad")
Communications and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday that telecom operators should improve their services to check call drops. He warned that penalty might be imposed if they fail to do so.
Speaking at The Economist India Summit, Prasad said: "We are not ruling out the option if the situation doesn't improve. Naturally, if there is an issue, it needs to be addressed by those who are in the game."
"We first cleared the spectrum sharing decision. Now we have cleared the spectrum trading also. So, whatever are the demands of telecom operators, we have done that for growth of the sector," Prasad said, adding the telecom operators need to offer good services to get help from the government.
Taking a jibe at the foreign telecom players in India, Prasad said, "Do not come to the Indian market. You come here because it is a one-billion plus market. You will come here impressed by the huge market, get a good number of customers by giving glossy magazine add covers, but give good service also."
"They (telecom players) have to do five things, reinforce their infrastructure, optimise the network, reconsider their network where ever it is needed and most importantly reinvest," he added.
He said for major multinational firms such as Vodafone to talk about making losses is preposterous.
"A big international company is talking about losses. I will do my best for the growth of the telecom sector. I am ready to go 100 steps, but when I see them not even take 15 steps, it causes concerns."
Later on, when asked what Vodafone should do, Prasad said he was only giving an example. "It is a big multinational company. India is a big market for them... But they need to re-invest if they are adding large number of customers."
Last month, Vodafone India chief executive officer Sunil Sood's comments related to call drops - "the telecom minister's and secretary's comments don't count as the view of the entire government" - had irked the government and the company was made to explain it. Sood wrote to the minister and said his comments were taken out of context.
