Call drop rate comes down in Mumbai in May, but still remains a concern: Trai

New Delhi: Call drop rates in Mumbai have come down in the last recorded audit in May when compared to an assessment carried out in January , but still remain high than the mandated norms for some of the operators, regulator Trai has said in its latest findings.
According to Trai’s drive tests conducted in Mumbai between May 10 and May 13, state-run MTNL had one of the worst performance in the city as the call drop rates were near 18% on the 2G network and 43% on the 3G network.This is way beyond the stipulated benchmark of 2% of all calls that has been fixed by Trai.
Vodafone’s dropped call rate was under the threshold in the 2G network, but it was higher at 2.29% on the 3G network. Idea Cellular’s 2G network had a high call drop rate of 5 per cent.
Bharti Airtel, however, had call drops under Trai’s stipulation on both its 2G and 3G networks. On 2G, it was recorded at 1.49% while on 3G, it was on the borderline at 1.94 per cent.
Aircel was 2.23 per cent on its 2G network while Reliance Communications was 2.85% on its 2G network. RCom’s CDMA network had a call drop of 4.84%. Tata was higher on both its networks – 2.08% on 2G network and 8.80 on its CDMA network.
While Trai is seeking powers to penalize the operators for the poor quality of services, the mobile companies have time-and-again questioned the findings, raising doubts over the manner in which the tests were carried out.
Trai has carried out surveys in around a dozen cities to monitor the quality of mobile networks. Its Delhi survey in May had revealed a deficiency across the major operators.