HYDERABAD: People in the city continue to experience call drops,
diversions, choppy connections, and delayed buffering more than four months
after 5G services were introduced in the nation. Mobile subscribers are
wondering when the companies will be able to provide better signals and services, even though Airtel and Jio have been expanding their services rapidly in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
"In areas like Jubilee Hills and Uppal, I've found that either my calls either drop or those trying to reach me get 'call diverted' messages,” rued George S.D., an employee with an MNC. Content writer Shrutika Venkat, who lives in Narayanaguda and works from home, claimed that she was unable to work effectively and failing to achieve deliverables due to recurrent network outages. "I'm forced to think about returning to working from a coworking place. My access to some vital applications is restricted," she complained. Further, she stated that the connection gets better when she shifts the network connection to 4G or LTE.
Sharen Mario, a resident of Bhoiguda, struggles to make and receive calls. "My Jio 5G network is terrible. I hadn't experienced such problems in the past. Video calls are particularly terrible,” she complained. Apart from Hyderabad, Jio 5G claims to offer uninterrupted services in 225 cities across the country, and recently expanded to eight Tier-II cities in Telangana, including Adilabad, Mahbubnagar, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Khammam, Nalgonda, and Ramagundam. When contacted, Airtel, which has already launched "5G Plus" in a number of locations throughout the city, stated that the rollout is currently only taking place "phase wise" and that it aims to reach the entire city by December 2023. Jio 5G claimed that they are currently fully operations in areas including, Begumpet, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, HiTec City, Gachibowli, Bowenplly, Kompally, RTC Cross Roads, Koti, Malakpet, Charminar, Habsiguda, Uppal, Nagole, Kukatpally, and Miyapur are completely operational. However, a quick glance at a nPerfmap - a tool for testing internet and broadband connections - would reveal that several parts inside of these locations lack reliable connections.
For instance, the 5G connection is weak or nonexistent at Srikrishna Nagar,
Lumbini Avenue, AP College, MCH Park, and DK Nagar, whereas it is good in
Jubilee Hills, Journalist Colony, Police Colony, and Prashanthi Nagar, among
other places. On Wednesday, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)
requested that service providers fix call drops and boost quality right now. The three private telecom service providers Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, were present at the meeting, which was presided over by telecom secretary K. Rajaraman. Officials stated that call dropouts are unacceptable now that the
nation is implementing 5G technology. According to reports, TSPs have been
asked to determine whether call dropouts would become more common after 5G
is implemented.
