'In Mumbai, my mobile phone often doesn't connect, my sms doesn't go'

"If I try calling during the day, I often get the same message: 'Network busy' or 'Error in network,' although the mobile phone at the other end is not being used. My mobile service company's network is down virtually every other day," a senior journalist in India's financial capital complains.

He adds that he can't often send messages either because the message fails to go through. That complaint is echoed by others too.

Grouses Shailaja Mathur (name changed), a mid-level executive at a steel company: "In Mumbai, my mobile phone often doesn't connect, my sms doesn't go."

With five million mobile service subscribers (including those who subscribe to code division multiple access services), Mumbai is India's second biggest mobile service market. It's also the most lucrative too for mobile service companies.

The "blended" (pre-paid and post-paid) average revenue per user (Arpu) in Mumbai ranges between Rs 600 and Rs 700 a month, versus, say, Rs 560 in the capital and less than Rs 500 in other parts of the country.

What is more, the five private mobile service companies that serve Mumbai "� Bharti Tele-Ventures, BPL Mobile, Hutchison Essar, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices "� have set up additional base transmission stations (BTS), invested in software to increase bandwidth and spent substantial sums on strengthening the infrastructure.

The three large global system for mobile (GSM) companies, Bharti Tele-Ventures, BPL Mobile and Hutchison Essar, have invested around Rs 5,000 crore in setting up and upgrading their networks over the past decade, says a senior executive at one of these companies.

BPL Mobile has invested in 160 new cell sites in the last six months and plans on investing in another 100 to take the total number of its cell sites to 700 by the end of March 2005. The state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd recently added 180 cell sites and intends to scale the number up to 430 soon.

So why then do subscribers frequently complain about the quality of services? Mobile service companies cite several reasons: the lack of adequate spectrum, the absence of a uniform pattern of usage and the topography of the city.

Mobile service companies also say that subscribers have become more demanding and that they're finding it difficult to satisfy their needs. Also, with tariffs falling by about 30 per cent over the last one year, subscribers are talking on their mobile phones more frequently or for greater lengths of time.

In the last six months, the gross minutes of usage have shot up from 200 million minutes a month to 270 million minutes a month, according to Krishna Angara, executive vice president, business operations, BPL Mobile.

Compounding such problems, the Brihanmumbai Mahanagar Palika (BMC) has stopped allowing new BTS and cell sites to be set up, a senior MTNL executive says.

BMC officials refuse to be drawn into a discussion on BTS but point out that "public interest litigation (PIL) is to come up for hearing at the Mumbai High Court and BMC is awaiting directions from the court."

Take spectrum. Hutchison Essar has already applied for additional spectrum as it soon expects the number of its subscribers in Mumbai to cross 1.5 million.

It now has over 1.3 million users and "as more subscribers are accommodated, the networks will have to be put to optimal use till such time as it gets additional spectrum," a company executive says.

Part of the problem is that mobile phones are used vastly more in pockets of south Mumbai such as Cuffe Parade, Kalbadevi and Nariman Point than in north Mumbai areas such as Bhayender.

In Nariman Point, Cuffe Parade and Kalbadevi, Hutchison Essar, BPL Mobile and Bharti Tele-Ventures together have over 1,400 cell sites.

"The government does not allot contiguous spectrum and managing scattered spectrum is one of the biggest challenges that the service operator faces today," notes Angara.

Asks one extremely irritated senior executive at a mobile service company who did not wish to be identified: "Can the government give me additional spectrum just for south Mumbai and not in north Mumbai?"

The way the city functions doesn't help either. Most cell phone users live in the northern part of the city and commute to the southern part every morning for work.

So the load shifts southwards every morning and traffic moves back northwards in the evening. This means that a mobile service operator has to set up cell sites all over the city to ensure adequate coverage.

Since Mumbai is surrounded by water all three sides, the sea just seems to gobble up radio waves, refusing to transmit sound bites and subscribers experience a sudden drop in calls or silence on the other end of the phone. The innumerable high rises that dot the city also block signals, at times making it difficult for two cell sites to communicate with each other.

Sanjay Mashruwala, group president, Reliance Infocomm says that as a late entrant, Reliance Infocomm was able to first look at traffic patterns and infrastructure issues before leaping into the market.

Says he: "Our BTS are interconnected over optic fibre, unlike those of GSM operators whose signals pass through air. So we have managed to avoid the problems of losing signals or microwaves over the air."

Mashruwala also argues that CDMA technology is more spectrum efficient and as a result Reliance Infocomm's network accommodates three or four times more users in the same spectrum than GSM networks do.

It is true that it's getting tougher for cellular phone service companies to set up more towers or cell sites in Mumbai.

"BMC has no issues on cell sites. We are more concerned about the construction of tall structures on existing buildings which might not able to take the load. These cell sites might not only endanger the building structure but are also unsafe for residents," another executive at a leading CDMA service company points out.

Many towers could topple over if the city is faced with high-velocity winds during the monsoon. Many housing societies too have refused to give cellular service companies permission to set up cell sites on roof tops, fearing that radiation could take a toll.

With rents on roof tops soaring and roof tops becoming difficult to access, some cellular service companies have started sharing their infrastructure.

Says Angara: "At least two cellular operators try to share one roof top." About 30 per cent of the city's cell sites are being shared by mobile service companies, the exception being Reliance Infocomm which does not share its 300 cell sites in Mumbai. "We do not share our cell sites as there could be technical interference," confirms Mashruwala.

With Mumbai being so critical for business continuity, cellular service companies are looking at the possibility of sharing networks within a circle if a mobile service company's network breaks down. But unless mobile service companies are given more spectrum 'Network busy' signals will continue to flash on cellphone screens.