www.WirelessFederation.com/news: According to a latest data analysis for performance from October to December of 2009 by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the average mobile across Mumbai lost connectivity for 3 hours and 22 minutes a month while average cell phone in Mumbai couldn’t get network for 1 hour and 39 minutes per month.
State telecom operators- Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) fared the worst when it came to network unavailability and the subscribers of the private players had much better connectivity. According to Trai, no provider should make a network unavailable to a subscriber for more than 14 hours and 24 minutes a month. In Mumbai, MTNL had their cellphones disconnected from the network for an average of 8 hours and 21 minutes a month. While BSNL in the rest of the state had their cells disconnected for an average of 13 hours and 27 minutes a month. However, both were still within the permissible limit set by Trai.
As far as private players are concerned, Bharti Airtel disconnected its network for 2 hours and 26 minutes a month, Reliance, Loop and Tata lost connectivity for 43, 38 and 17 minutes a month respectively while Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular fared the best, with their Mumbai connections losing connectivity for only 8 minutes a month.
In terms of the amount of calls getting disconnected due to network problems, MTNL and BSNL again fared the worst, but stayed within the permissible limit of 2%. The average number of calls getting disconnected in Mumbai as well as in Maharashtra was around 1%.
According to service providers, the number of call drops on flyovers or railway bridges had come down drastically because of the installation of boosters on streetlight poles as Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has allowed the installation of transmission equipment atop streetlight poles as most flyovers and bridges were dead spots for mobile connectivity and it is not possible to erect the usual network towers atop flyovers and bridges.