Big boost for consumers, now even voice mute will count as call drop; Rs 5 lakh penalty

The problem of call drops while speaking to someone on your mobile phone is quite frustrating. However, now, in a big boost for consumers, even voice mute faced by customers will be considered as a call drop, according to new service quality norms formulated by India's telecom regulator. The move is to assess call quality on the 4G network with a view to checking problems like voice mute faced by customers. New norms would be applicable from October 1.
 
A report by Navbhart Times said that service providers will be slapped with a fine of Rs 5 lakh if call drop problem is noticed more than 2 per cent in a monthly plan. Besides, network of each mobile tower will be tallied on day-today basis.
 
The report citing Trai said that consumers should get at least 90 per cent speed as per his monthly plan.

The regulator stated, "Guidelines for evaluation of radio interface technologies for IMT Advance', a user is defined to have experienced a voice outage if less than 98 per cent of the packets have been delivered successfully. In view of above, Authority decided to prescribe benchmarks as less than or equal to 2 per cent for both the parameters."
 
Last month, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has reportedly decided to measure call quality on the 4G network in terms of data packets-- a parameter different from benchmarks used to assess call drops on 2G and 3G networks.
 
Trai has mandated telecom operators to ensure that not more than or equal to 2 per cent of total data packets transmitted during uplink and downlink of calls can be lost at the most to ensure that customers get to experience better call quality, said a PTI report.
 
With the advent of 4G network, customers often fail to hear voice from the other side due to data loss and disconnect call on their own. Such disconnection does not qualify as a call drop under the norms for 2G and 3G networks. 
 
Trai has reportedly directed telecom operators to conduct field test for ascertaining reason for delay in setting up of call on 4G network every quarter starting October 1.
 
On 4G network, voice calls are made using data as the entire network is developed using Internet protocol (IP) technology. In case of 2G and 3G networks, customers experience automatic disconnection of calls which is also termed as 'call drop'. 
 
Trai reportedly said, "Authority considered the views of stakeholders and decided to introduce two new network parameters for QoS regulations 'Down Link (DL) Packet Drop Rate or DL-PDR' and 'Up Link (UL) Packet Drop Rate or UL-PDR', to measure overall packet loss or drop in both downlink and uplink at PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) layer." 

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The regulator further stated, "Guidelines for evaluation of radio interface technologies for IMT Advance', a user is defined to have experienced a voice outage if less than 98 per cent of the packets have been delivered successfully. In view of above, Authority decided to prescribe benchmarks as less than or equal to 2 per cent for both the parameters."