Want to bring down call drop rate to below 1-1.5%: Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

India’s call drop rates are around three percent, higher than the global average.

The government plans to decrease the call drop rate to below 1-1.5 percent eventually, Jyotiraditya Scindia, minister of communications, said on September 23.

Addressing the media on the government's achievements in the first 100 days, the minister noted that the government will follow a quarterly monitoring system, followed by monthly monitoring, to reduce the call drop rate.

“We will do quarterly monitoring of not just call drop rate, but packet drop rate, which is a much more granular metric,” the minister noted.

India’s call drop rates are around three percent, higher than the global average.

The minister also talked about the robust health of the country's telecom sector.

“There are very few countries in the world that have four players within the telecom sector in the country,” Scindia said.

The minister noted that the government was examining the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the curative petition for recalculation of AGR and the repercussions that could arise from it.

The minister also reiterated that the telecom hikes were due to India’s telecom providers' rapid upgrade of the 4G-5G network nationwide.

“Capital investments worth Rs 4.26 lakh crore have been made in the last two years,” he pointed out, noting that charges were still significantly lower than a decade ago despite the increases.

Scindia noted that telecom charges at 3.3p per call are significantly lower than the 51p consumers used to pay a decade ago. Similarly, internet charges of Rs 9.55 per GB are lower than Rs 281 per GB a decade ago.

The minister said that the government was hoping to notify the Post Office Act, 2023, before December.