Aiming to reduce call drop rate by another 8 per cent by Dec: Telecom Minister

New Delhi: Call drop rate in the country has come down by 8 per cent in the last one year and the target is to reduce it further by similar margin by this year-end, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Friday.

"Call drop has reduced by 8 per cent so far since we held last review meet. We have set a target to reduce it by another 8 per cent by the end of this year," Sinha told reporters after the meeting on call drop issue.

The minister said the last data released by regulator Trai as also the survey done by the Department of Telecom (DoT) through automated calls to public shows an improvement on the call drop front during the review period.

The telecom minister held the last meeting in July 2016 where telecom operators had set 100 days and 1 year plans for improvement in call drop issue.

"Telecom operators met the target set for them. In 100 days, telecom companies installed 60,000 BTS (base stations) and 3.49 lakh BTSes were installed in one year," Sinha said.

Bharti Airtel Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal, Idea Cellular MD and CEO Himanshu Kapania, Reliance Jio Director Mahendra Nahata, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava, MTNL CMD P K Purwar, Telenor India CEO Sharad Mehrotra, senior officials of Vodafone and Reliance Communications were present at the meeting.

Sinha also said that telecom operators are facing resistance from people in installing mobile towers specially in Delhi and Mumbai. "Even after necessary approvals from the government, telecom operators are unable to install mobile towers. They are not getting space to install mobile towers as required. DoT secretary and other department officials will coordinate with other government departments. NDMC will make available government buildings for installation of BTSs," Sinha said.

He said telecom operators are facing similar issues in different parts of the country but resistance is more in Delhi and Mumbai.