Indian telecom overloaded and dropping
By Bala Shah

Leading Indian newspaper Hindustan Times has published the finding of a national survey which reveal that “more than three out of five users face call drops one or two times out of 10. As many as 45 per cent say they face billing-related problems ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’. And only two out of five users are satisfied with the customer care response.” The survey is shocking.

Bad service aside, more than one in three prepaid users say they do not get the promised talk time. The frustration level is so high among users that two out of five say they will change their operator if they can retain their number, making number portability a need rather than just another option.

The Hindustan Times report which is mandatory reading also says that in 13 telecom circles (boundaries of a telecom circle roughly coincide with those of a state), the operator’s network is overloaded. This means, the number of subscribers exceeds the network’s capacity. In some states, the network is running at over 120 per cent capacity. The number should be below 100 per cent, ideally around 90 per cent, according to experts.