Government not to appoint ombudsman for telecom sector: Pilot

The government on yesterday ruled out appointment of an ombudsman to redress the complaints of poor mobile telcphony services, like dropped calls assuring that state-run BSNL and MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.

Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, minister of state for telecom, Sachin Pilot said that though India, thanks to the telecom revolution has one of the world's cheapest call rates, it also has much congestion in the network causing call drops.

He said that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) are taking effective steps to upgrade technology and taking other steps to improve quality.

Pilot, when asked about appointment of an independent ombudsman to address complaints like call drops replied in the negative.

According to telecom minister A Raja, the per-second metering of calls introduced recently by major mobile operators was to ensure consumers did not have to pay for a full minute for calls lasting more than a few seconds because of call drop.

He said as long as consumers were benefited he was 'not bothered' about companies losing revenue in the per-second billing tariff.