7% fall in call drop cases after IVRS launch

The Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS), which was launched by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to obtain direct feedback from subscribers about the quality of mobile services has started yielding results. According to a senior official, about 7 per cent of call drops reduced in the three months after the IVRS became operational in December last.

"The results obtained through the IVRS platform and follow up efforts of DoT and telecom service providers are encouraging. The call drops reported by subscribers have dropped from 64 per cent in December 2016 to 57 per cent at the end of March 2017," the official said. In addition, the government also facilitated TSPs to identify black spots and plan new sites/ infrastructure to improve their services. Supporting the DoT's initiatives, the TSPs have installed 109 new sites/boosters out of total 987 planned.

"The department resolved some 13,631 cases related to call drops, while another 7,975 cases related to data, roaming, billing, MNP, mobile device, etc have also been addressed. Some 1,406 cases were resolved through optimisation, rectifying hardware/power problems, through field visits etc during March 15 to 31," the official said.