The story so far: The recently-concluded second part of the Budget session of the Parliament had Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responding to questions on call drops. Member of Parliament from Narasaraopet (Andhra Pradesh) Sri Krishna Devarayulu Lavu and Karakat (Bihar) MP Mahabali Singh raised concerns on call drop incidents in the country. Separately they asked the Telecom Minister if the government maintained any data of such occurrences and the measures taken to mitigate them. Further, the Karakat MP asked the Minister to apprise the house if the government proposed to cancel the license of telecom regulators failing to address the concerns. The Telecom Minister replied in negative.
Mr. Vaishnaw informed the House about the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) monitoring mechanism for telecom service providers (TSPs) specific to their Licensed Service Area (LSA) as a whole. This is done using Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs) submitted by the service providers against the benchmarks for quality parameters laid down by the regulator. The report for the quarter ending December 2021 noted that all TSPs excluding BSNL in West Bengal LSA were in compliance to the benchmark.
