According to the Ministry of Communications and IT, operators including Aircel, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Vodafone India are not meeting the quality service benchmark (QoS) for call drops in few of the telecom circles.

The performance on call drop is accessed through QoS parameters like call drop rate/circuit switch voice drop rate for which benchmark is less than or equal to 2 per cent.

Aircel is not meeting the QoS benchmark in 18 service areas, BSNL in five and Vodafone in two service areas. Further, as per the performance monitoring report for 2G services for the quarter ending December 2014, the benchmark for parameter call drop rate is not met by Aircel in two service areas and BSNL in three service areas.

For worst-affected cells having over three per cent traffic channel drop during cell bouncing busy hour or any other hour of a day, the QoS benchmark is less than or equal to three per cent. In this case, for 3G services, Aircel is not meeting the benchmark for QoS parameter worst affected cells having more than three per cent call drop rate in 12 service areas and BSNL in three service areas.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has been pursuing operators to comply with QoS parameters. On its part, the regulatory authority imposes financial disincentives on service providers for their failure to comply with the prescribed QoS benchmarks.