Call drops situation to improve in coming months: Telecom Minister

There will be positive results in the next 3-4 months in addressing the problem of call drops, telecom minister Manoj Sinha told the Lok Sabha today, while expressing commitment to get rid of the “black spot.” Sinha said he had a meeting with telecom operators two days ago where several instructions have been given to improve the situation on call drops front. “We will resolve the problem of call drops . In next 3-4 months we will see some positive results. …Ye kaala dhabba hum mita kar hi rahenge (We will certainly remove this black spot),” he said during Question Hour. Sinha said the telecom operators will invest around Rs 20,000 crore to improve their infrastructure and install one lakh base transceiver station (BTS) to offer better services to customers. Replying a supplementary, Sinha said the telecom ministry is in touch with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to ensure enhancement of the validity of mobile and mobile data from present 90 days to 365 days. “For making provision of longer validity (365 days) of mobile internet plans instead of current validity period (maximum 90 days), the Trai has released ‘Draft Telecom Consumers Protection (Tenth Amendment) Regulations 2016 on July 5 seeking comments of stakeholders,” he said. PTI