Call drops: Except RCom, Vodafone all telcos fail to meet benchmark, says Trai

All telecom operators, except RCom and Vodafone, have failed to meet call drop benchmark in Delhi as per a recent test drive for mobile quality of service (QoS) by telecom regulator Trai, which is seeking more powers to impose penalty on erring firms.

"All telecom operators are performing below call drop rate and it has degraded further compared to previous tests," Trai Advisor Robert A Ravi told reporters here.

Trai has launched a website to publish results of its test drives. Today, it published the result of test drive conducted in Delhi between May 3-6.

The Trai test found Aircel using higher limit for Radio link time out technology (RLT) compared to other telecom operators.

Trai officials said they will write to Department of Telecom for amending the Trai Act to give it powers to impose penalty on telecom operators.

"As hon'ble Supreme Court is its judgement has observed that Trai does not has power to impose such (call drop) penalty on telecom operators, we will write to DoT today for amendment in Trai Act to give us more power," Trai Secretary Sudhir Gupta said.

Trai also launched mobile app for filing pesky calls and SMS complaints.

"The application is available on Android and will be soon launched for Apple iOS soon. It will ease filing of complaints and also help us in monitoring action taken by telecom operators on complaints," Trai Member Anil Kaushal said.