Consumers across service providers fume at rising frequency of call drops

PUNE: Santosh Jalan is tired of calls going blank midway, disconnecting the phone, redialling, struggling to recollect the point where the conversation had abruptly stopped and taking it forward.
“The problem is continuing for the past four weeks or so. I initially thought that there might be some network issue and ignored it for a couple of days. But the problem continued.


It takes multiple attempts for the call to connect in the first place. It is irritating to make multiple calls to one person,” said the Idea Cellular consumer.

Jalan is not the only one in the city complaining about call drops. Vodafone consumer Diksha Kini said that she too was facing frequent call drops and shifted from prepaid to postpaid services.

“I understand that there may not be a connection between call drops and the type of service one uses. But from my experience, I can say that the calls dropped more often when I was using a prepaid connection. When I raised the issue with the service provider, I was told to switch to a postpaid plan. I did it. Though the calls still drop at times, the frequency with which they drop has reduced,” she said.

Idea Cellular consumer Pallavi Karpe said, “The frequency of call drops has gone up once again. There are serious network issues with all the service providers of late. I have registered a complaint with the service provider.”

Vodafone consumer Shaheen Ghasia said, “It takes a long time for a call to get connected. This is going on for the past few weeks. The problem increases when I cross from one circle to another, or go into the roaming mode. For example, the call drops are more persistent when I travel to Mumbai — a different circle.”

Clarifying their stand, a senior official of a leading private telecommunication company said that the total number of cellphone users in India has grown phenomenally over the last few years.

“With the growing traffic in the same spectrum, the load is only increasing. In western countries such as Germany, 100% people use data, even for voice calls. But despite the penetration of Internet and 4G in India, data usage stands only at 25% and 75% usage is for voice calls. This is burdening the spectrum and the result is call drop,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“Also, with the advancement in technology, all operators are upgrading their systems. This could also lead to network issues. The service providers are aware of the problems and working towards resolving them,” the official said.

Attributing the call drops to the increase in traffic, an Idea Cellular spokesperson said, “We have taken a number of measures to enhance network capacity for over 2.8 crore customers in the Maharashtra circle. Almost all telecom service providers are facing network congestions due to the sudden increase in traffic. The networks are being continuously optimized to allow customers a seamless experience on both voice and data, on the technology of their choice – be it 2G, 3G or 4G. We are also preparing for the launch of VoLTE. This will enhance voice service for our customers in Pune.”

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) director general Rajan Mathews said, “For the areas experiencing call drops more frequently, constant monitoring and identification is being carried out by the telecom service providers. This is going on along with the regular optimization of network capacity and coverage.

The Indian telecom industry is facing unprecedented challenges since the last couple of years and support of the government is required to resolve these issues.”