India’s mobile operators have installed around 65,000 new 2G and 3G sites over the last six months as part of efforts to reduce call dropping and improve quality of service (QoS), including 20,000 for 2G services and 45,000 for 3G, the Economic Times cites Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as saying in a speech to parliament. The minister added that the government has been working with cellcos to ease the process of installing new sites, noting: ‘The government has continued to facilitate the availability of government land and buildings for further installations by the service providers and has been creating awareness to dispel fears [of the potential impact of] electro-magnetic field (EMF) radiation on human health.’
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in October last year sector watchdog the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) imposed new regulations, effective from 1 January 2016, that would require providers to automatically compensate users at a rate of INR1 (USD0.015) per dropped call to a maximum of INR3 per day. The regulations were challenged by the nation’s cellcos however, and the matter is currently awaiting judgement in the Delhi High Court.