The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked the telecom operators to optimise the allocation of resources to address the problem of call drops. DoT has rejected the operators’ claim that the problem is linked to the absence of a national tower policy.

DoT is of the view that lack of adequate mobile towers is only partially responsible for the problem of call drops. After conducting an internal audit to assess the coverage and quality of service of all mobile operators in metro cities, DoT had concluded that the main reason behind this problem is the fact that the operators are not investing sufficiently in 2G voice networks in the 1800 MHz band and are instead focusing on offering high speed 4G data services in this band.

The operators, however, have claimed that they have invested 73 per cent of their revenues amounting to Rs 1.34 trillion in spectrum and network during 2014-15. The operators have requested the government for a uniform tower policy to resolve the issue of call drops. This is because the infrastructure providers often face issues in installing new sites, while the arbitrary shutting down of sites further results in network congestion and poor coverage.