Telecomm operators to appear before Parliament on issue of call drops

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has called telecom operators Airtel and Aircel to appear before it to brief on the issue of call drops on January 5.

A notice of the panel said meeting will be held on January 5, 2017 to "to hear the views of the representatives of Bharti Airtel Limited and Aircel Limited on the subject 'issues related to quality of services and reported call drops".

The panel, chaired by BJP MP and BCCI President Anurag Thakur, had earlier met officials industry lobby Cellular Operators Association of India and Reliance Jio to discuss call drop issue.

COAI urged the committee to also hear out incumbent operators, including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, and Vodafone, for a fairer assessment of the situation.

The members of the panel in November meeting, among various issues, sought to know about service quality challenges arising out of free calls being offered by the newcomer RJio, and how these issues are being sorted, as per sources.

As per telecom regulator TRAI report for April-June quarter, maximum call drop was reported on Aircel network across most telecom circles in the country. Call drops were also noticed on the networks of RCom, Telenor, BSNL and Vodafone in April-June period.