In a bid to check the rate of falling call rates, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has begun a test-drive assisted by operators to capture real-time data and voice quality.
“Operator-assisted drive tests have started in all the five regions of Trai, and a number of cities have been covered,” said Trai Chairman R S Sharma.
Operator-assisted tests have already taken place in Mathura (UP-West circle), Jaisalmer, (Rajasthan), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and Mangaluru (Karnataka), among others.
Kalyan, Noida, Jammu, Guwahati-Dispur, Mysuru, Hyderabad, Rajkot, Bhopal, and Jhansi will see tests conducted in the near-term according to the regulator’s schedule.
These operator-assisted test drives are distinct from the independent drive tests that Trai conducts. It is a new concept as they are conducted in coordination with telecom service providers. It also involves the telecom firms’ equipment and costs with Trai supervising the process.
Both the drive tests assess the performance of networks on various quality benchmarks such as call set-up success rate, call drop, blocked calls and radio frequency coverage.
Independent drive tests were conducted by Trai in Amritsar (August-September), and in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Thiruvananthapuram (May-June) last year.
On the points of interconnect (PoI) dispute between RelianceJio and Bharti Airtel, Sharma said the regulator would continue to “monitor the situation”.
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