Naina Khedekar

The call drops issue has been one of the most discussed issues in recent times and TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has been taking it seriously for some time now.

Trai conducted tests and found that none of the telcos fared well. The regulator is now known to have tightened the noose, asking telcos to install more towers and improve infrastructure. Telcos however, claim that they aren't entirely to blame for the situation. Worried over the worsening call drop menace, Trai had earlier asked the government for powers to penalise mobile operators as most of them have failed to meet the quality benchmark in this regard. It was soon followed by call a drop penalty asking operators to compensate consumers Re 1 for each dropped call, with an upper limit at Rs 3 per day. This was eventually quashed by the Supreme court.

Soon, the focus was on network quality and some telcos like Airtel decided to matters in their own hands. Soon after SC axed TRAI regulation, Airtel set itself on a self-regulation path. Airtel voluntarily decided to implement a 25 percent more stringent mobile call drop benchmark of 1.5 percent versus the 2 percent prescribed by TRAI. Following this is the new initiative called Open Network.

Airtel, under its Project Leap initiative, has taken a big leap forward. It now wants transparency and feedback to improve network quality. It is now allowing its customers to see the network coverage and signal strength in any location across India. The company’s website and the Myairtel app will show a colour coded interface and you can find out if your area has excellent, good, moderate or non-existent network coverage. It also shows the status of corresponding sites serving the area—existing, required, being upgraded or forcibly shut down.

No doubt, it is a first-of-its kind initiative from a telco, but there are services that let you check coverage network. We wondered if the rest of the telcos clan would follow suit and have tried getting in touch with some leading telcos. We're still awaiting their response and will update this story when we hear from them.

Airtel has gone a step further, allowing its users to reach out to the Call Centre or Airtel flagship stores across the country to report issues related to the mobile network. Announced in November 2015, Airtel plans a Rs 60,000 crores investment in Project Leap over the next three years. This project was launched for improving network quality and customer support.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said, “Open Network is a paradigm shift in the way we engage with our customers. With this initiative, we are establishing complete transparency with regards to our mobile network and opening ourselves to customer scrutiny and feedback. For us, the network experience is paramount and Airtel customers can now take charge of network issues and be a part of the solution, rather than waiting for it to happen. Today, getting permissions to put up a network site is perhaps the biggest challenge in delivering a seamless experience to customers. We hope customers will actively come forward and help us make our network better.”

Under its Project leap, Airtel claims to be working on technologies including smaller cells, indoor solutions, Wi-Fi hotspots and also carrier aggregation technologies to improve network experience inside buildings. It plans to deploy over 1,00,000 such solutions over the next three years. It's swapping its legacy networks and base stations with smaller, more compact and efficient technologies that will significantly improve customer experience. All these modern base stations will use a single-radio-access network to manage multiple spectrum bands. The company is working at building modern base stations and also creating more network capacity through acquisition of additional spectrum and the deployment of fiber.

While all this sounds good on paper, and Airtel users will now be able to see the coverage in their area. It is yet to be seen how much attention Airtel pays to customer feedback and grievances. We also need to see if the initiative really helps resolve the call drops issue or remains mere data on paper, which may read 'good' and claim it to be enough to vouch for the network quality in that area. Only time will tell.