Call Drops is one of the hottest topics of discussion these days. This is indeed an important topic that all stakeholders in the telecom industry - telecom operators, government and regulators, technology partners and vendors like us and subscribers need to get together to resolve. And the issue is not only limited to dropped voice call in our opinion. It is about reliable, uninterrupted and high quality network access - be it for voice or for mobile data (internet).
In fact for mobile data, the issue of "drop" is even more challenging because subscribers are more likely to redial the person during a dropped voice call, but when mobile internet session fails - very few people actually try again. This not only creates dissatisfied customers, it causes significant revenue loss to the telecom operators and hence in their ability to invest back into the networks. Let us share some initiatives underway in the industry to address this issue:
1) Limited spectrum: India has one of the least spectrum allocations per operator in the world. Coupled with a large and growing subscriber base, the radio quality is bound to degrade resulting in call drops. It is imperative that India needs to make more spectrum available to support its huge growth opportunities in telecom. Additionally the impact on call drops can be controlled through spectral efficiency features and smart antennas which can pack more traffic within the limited spectrum.
2) IBS & Small cells: To improve indoor coverage and address the traffic needs in hotspots, more In Building Solutions (IBS) and Small Cells deployment need to take off in a big way. This will ensure seamless mobility limiting dropped calls. Solutions like advanced Geolocation services to identify traffic hotspots and poor coverage areas, enables operators to selectively and effectively deploy IBS and small cells.
3) Multi-layer optimisation: With most operators having multiple technologies (2G, 3G & LTE), inter layer optimisation is crucial to ensure seamless mobility across the technology layers. With increased automation in planning and network management with technologies like SON (self-organising network), Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Predictive Operations, the industry is moving towards smart and proactive network management.
4) New site acquisition: Finally, not just more sites but sites in the right location are critical for the right performance levels. This is governed by "Laws of Physics" and the regulatory environment should be conducive to acquire new sites in the right locations. Today as expressed by several telecom operators as well, there are several challenges at state, district and city corporations levels to get the necessary and speedy approvals on finding sites for network deployment.
Overall, India is at a very interesting stage of telecom revolution. With cheapest voice tariffs and ubiquitous mobile network availability on GSM, tele-density in India had grown phenomenally in the first decade of its existence and this had significant impact on the growth of the economy. All stakeholders - operators, network equipment players, handset players, VAS players and certainly the government contributed to this.
We are now entering the next phase of mobile revolution in India, this time in mobile broadband. The country can have a similar data growth story if we have the right spectrum to address the capacity and coverage need, which will even resolve the network congestion issues.
To overcome the above challenges, it would be important for the authorities to provide a clear roadmap of the spectrum to be made available for the industry in order to plan the evolution of the network to higher technologies like LTE.
(Sandeep Girotra is head of India Market at Nokia Networks.)
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