Focus on customer satisfaction, Telecom Minister tells operators

In his first meeting with CEOs of telecom service providers here on Monday, Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha said the issue of call drops was being addressed, adding that some of the work done by the companies was satisfactory.

However, Sinha said customer satisfaction should be the utmost priority for companies as the issue was not just about call drops, but also data services.

“Data services is also a major part of the Prime Minister’s ‘Digital India’ programme and, therefore, we have set some benchmarks for telecom companies, such as technology upgradation, to achieve some of the targets,” Sinha told reporters here after the meeting.

The Minister, who took charge of the Ministry earlier this month, met the Chief Executive Officers of telcos to discuss various issues in the industry. He also assured the industry of all help in achieving government targets.

“They (telcos) assured that the target for the 100-day programme, as committed to the Secretary (in the Ministry), will be met. They indicated that (with effect) from June 10, there will be an addition of around 60,000 base transceiver station (BTS) in 100 days across the country, out of which 48,000 have been installed in the last 45 days,” he said.

Sinha emphasised the need for cooperation and complementing the efforts of the government and the operators for the sector’s progress so that improved services reach the common people. “Overall, it was a good meeting,” Gopal Vittal, CEO, Bharti Airtel, said. Asked if the call drops issue was discussed, Vittal said: “Not only call drops, various other issues were also discussed.”

This was the second meeting between the government and the operators on the call drop issue. At the first meeting with Telecom Secretary JS Deepak in June, a 100-day plan was chalked out. The previous Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, had never met the CEOs in a group, but met them individually.

Among the CEOs who met the Minister on Monday were Sunil Sood, Head, Vodafone India; Himanshu Kapania, CEO, Idea Cellular; Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm; and Sharad Mehrotra, CEO, Telenor.

“The focus of the meeting was the success of Digital India. We have committed to install one lakh base stations in a year. We have asked for E (71-76 Ghz) and V (50 Ghz) band to support the backhaul network. Getting right-of-way permission for optic fibre is difficult so these bands can help,” said Rajan S Mathews, Director General of Cellular Operators Association of India.

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