Apart from Bharti Airtel’s 2G services, others have failed the call drop test in Ahmedabad

NEW DELHI: All mobile carriers, bar Bharti Airtel’s 2G services, have failed the call drop test in Ahmedabad, telecom regulator said on Monday, unveiling the results of latest drive tests conducted in May. However, the same tests in Kanpur and Lucknow showed that most operators barring a couple were meeting the desired norms.

“All the operators have failed to meet the call drop rate benchmark of under 2% except Airtel 2G,” said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai) in a statement, on Ahmedabad.

In the drive tests conducted during May 18 to 20 in the city, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. ( BSNL) 3G was the worst with call drop rate at a very high rate of 15.21%. Idea cellular was the second worst at both its 2G and 3G services with call drop rates at more than 11% for each. Two percent is the maximum call drop limit.

RCom’s CDMA network in Ahmedabad, BSNL 2G and Reliance CDMA in Kanpur and Lucknow, didn’t make the cut, Trai said.

On the call set-up success rate benchmark of over 95 per cent, most telcos in Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Kanpur, met the norms?. Exception was only for RCom’s CDMA network in Ahmedabad.

The drive test results come at a time when ties between the mobile carriers and Trai have hit a low with both parties adopting an aggressive stance against one another on several issues, including call drops. Trai has conducted similar drive tests in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bhopal and Chandigarh and rebuked telcos for continuing call drops, but telcos have disagreed with Trai's methodology.

The independent drive tests in all three locations were conducted last month by audit agency IMRB International. A drive test, typically, is conducted in a moving vehicle stacked with gear to continuously make cellphone calls and check if they fail.