Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government is monitoring infrastructure work being done by telecom operators.
“I welcome them (operators) for their work but they should also keep in mind and ensure their services should be good… Just being a big operator in not necessary, the services should be good also,” Mr Prasad said on the sidelines of Workshop of State Administrative Training Institute.
Asked about operators approaching Delhi High Court against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regulation of imposing penalty for call drops, the minister said court would take its decision.
The TRAI has come out with a compensation policy mandating that telecom companies from January 1 should compensate users at the rate of Re one per dropped call, with a ceiling of three such calls per day, which amounts to Rs. three compensation a day.
The issue of call drop has been prevailing over the last few months. The services though are now showing some signs of improvement.
The minister on the policy front said he took most of the decisions that were pending for many years like spectrum trading, sharing, harmonisation and liberalisation and telecom companies should also do their bit.
“Telecom operators should work to improve their infrastructure and we expect them to improve it. Our department is monitoring it. They have done some work, more needs to be done,” Mr Prasad said.
Recently, the minister had said he did not want to be known as a ‘call drop minister’ and operators must reinforce their networks to improve quality of services.
Mr Prasad had also said the implementation of the investment commitments made by telecom players to upgrade networks is being monitored.
