Telecom Operators fail the TRAI test

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reported on Wednesday that the telecom operators are using call drop mask technology incorrectly in their Mumbai based areas. TRAI conducted a test for Airtel, Aircel, Idea, Vodafone, RCOM, MTNL and TATA.

The operators had not met the call drop benchmark of 2 per cent or less except for Airtel on 2G and 3G and Vodafone on 2G.

Out of the range of technologies used in 2G, 3G and CDMA, operators are using call drop masking technology incorrectly. The usage of time-out period for releasing the call needed to be addressed immediately by the operators.

The operators used RLT to mask the call drops. RLT a Radio Link Time Out is a feature used worldwide and a part of GSM standards. RLT decides for how long the call should be sustained if the signal quality drops below a certain threshold. Thereby the RLT of 40 units and beyond is being used by the operators.

The use of RLT beyond limit would delay dropped call by forcing a consumer to disconnect and not providing him any information in audio format, thereby charging him for the time the call was inaudible.

Amongst the operators, Vodafone used the highest RLT of 97 per cent of the total cell sites. IDEA used 80 per cent; while Aircel used 64 per cent.

The stock of IDEA dropped 0.73 per cent at Rs 101.40. Bharti Airtel dropped marginally by 0.33 per cent at Rs 361. RCom fell 1.65 per cent to Rs 47.78 while MTNL tumbled 1.89 per cent to Rs 20.80.