BackMost telcos fail Trai’s call-drop test in Hyderabad
Barring Vodafone India and Telenor India in 2G networks and BSNL in 3G networks, telecom operators didn't meet Trai's benchmark 2% rate for call drops
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The telecom regulator has found most telecom operators—barring Vodafone India and Telenor India in 2G networks and BSNL in 3G networks—failing to meet the benchmark for dropped calls in Hyderabad.
The findings are from an independent test drive conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in Hyderabad to assess the quality of service provided by telecom firms.
Trai declared the results despite a request by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to put the test on hold, citing severe rainfall in Hyderabad, which it said had disrupted telecom services in the city for most operators.
The study shows most telecom operators failing to meet the benchmark for call-drop rates at 2% except Vodafone and Telenor in 2G networks and BSNL in 3G networks. Reliance CDMA had the worse rate at 5.5%.
All the operators met the call set-up success rate benchmark of 95%, with Telenor recording the highest at 99.8%. However, in case of Rx quality, commonly known as signal strength, most operators performed poorly.
In a letter to Trai chairman R.S. Sharma on 6 June, COAI asked the authority to carry out the test after normal weather conditions resumed in Hyderabad as tests conducted otherwise would give poor results. The letter states, “We request the authority that the drive test in Hyderabad may please be kept in abeyance till the situation becomes normal."
The audit was conducted by CS Datamation, an audit agency, across a distance of 300km on 5-7 May, accessing network conditions, considering call set-up success rates, call drops, voice quality, blocked calls and coverage as parameters.
Rajan S. Mathews, director general of COAI, said, “If one excludes the results for three problematic areas where 60% of the call drops have been reported, telcos have been performing well. Also, these test drive results are not to be confused with the regular QoS (quality of service) conducted for whole LSA (licensed service area) because they cover only a smaller area."
Mathews added that it was unfair to release results when around 400 towers were affected by strong storms during the tests. “Even as they (Trai) suggest that they made adjustments suiting weather conditions, we don’t agree and we request the regulator to not cause undue alarm to consumers."
Trai’s first independent test drive, conducted in Delhi, showed that most telecom operators failed to meet the call-drop benchmark set by it. Trai has said it intends to conduct such tests in 11 more cities and announce results by mid-June.
COAI had in a response to the Delhi results expressed its disagreement with the methodology followed by Trai, saying, “To get a fair and an accurate picture, the issues of quality of service and call drops have to be seen in a holistic manner for the entire LSA and not only for selected samples or areas." The group added that the report shows telecom firms in poor light only in problematic service areas.
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