Telcom operators question Trai’s drive test results
03 Jun 2016
Telecom operators yesterday questioned Trai over its drive test results showing worsening call drop situation. They claim the issue was limited to areas where there were problems in installing towers.
"While the area of Delhi NCR is 46,208 kilometer square, these results are limited to a route covering 600 km only. Hence the QoS results from the Drive Test are not strictly comparable with the standard QoS for Dropped Calls regularly published by TRAI for the entire service area," Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a statement.
The COAI represents telecom majors, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and others, but the drive test and its results did not cover all the cellsites but only a limited amount of the telecom circle, it added.
In the report of drive tests of mobile service quality, Trai said it found that "all 3G networks; 2G networks of Airtel and MTNL and CDMA network of RCom have shown degradation in performance compared to previous drive test".
Contesting the report, COAI said, "When we look at the QoS for the whole LSA of Delhi we notice that all the operators are in compliance with the benchmark set by TRAI of 2 per cent. Given the limited coverage of these Drive Tests, the results show problems limited to the known problematic areas where the industry faces issues in obtaining cell sites."
COAI said the drive test was limited to a very small area and largely focused on "problematic" areas like Dwarka, Central Delhi, IGI Airport, Gurgaon-Manesar and Noida-Mayur-Vihar of the Delhi-NCR.
"To get a fair and an accurate picture, the issue of QoS and call drops has to be seen in a holistic manner for the entire LSA (license service area) and not only for selected samples or areas," the COAI said in the statement.
The industry body was responding to Trai's drive test results that showed that all 3G and 2G networks of Bharti Airtel and MTNL and CDMA network of Reliance Communications were worse off in May compared with the previous month.