Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-Santanu Ganguly, a Kolkata-based entrepreneur, visits Bangladesh every quarter.
Last month, when he landed at Dhaka airport, Ganguly was happily surprised to see an advertisement by Grameenphone that says “Call back on Call drop” – a scheme that reimburses all Grameenphone subscribers with 60 seconds of free talk-time on every call drop, reports Business Standard.
Ganguly, who has not been successful to avoid rampant call drops in India even though he has changed services operators quite a few times in the past couple of years, decided to take a temporary travellor’s connection from Grameenphone, which he had used on his earlier visits, was again surprised to see that call drop rate on Grameenphone network has actually come down, and the company, not just claim but ensure that the free talk time is given to the subscriber every time call drop.
“Why don’t Indian operators start this here? Here’s something that India should learn from Bangladesh,” Ganguly asks. Not just Ganguly, this question may arise in every Indian’s mind.
Interestingly, the initiatives from Grameenphone, which has highest rate of call drops in Bangladesh (though within permissible limit), after sector regulator Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission issued stiff norms regarding quality of service, including setting limits for call drops at two per cent, violation of which would attract high penalty.
Grameenphone is not alone to start the newest customer-friendly scheme before Eid that would essentially help the company to control churn.
Banglalink, the second largest mobile operator, has followed suit with its “Minute back on call drop” offer.
The permissible limit of call drop in India is also capped at two per cent (of total calls being made on a particular network) by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
And, all mobile operators in India, officially do abide by the regulations. Yet, consumers face rampant call drops, almost once in every five to ten calls depending on area and time of the call.
So, why is the difference? There is no standard definition of call drop. What consumers consider as a call drop that may not qualify as a call drop for the service provider. Thus, operators manage to comply by the norms set by Trai.
“Certainly, this is an interesting initiative for the consumers. Indian operators could also look at developing such initiatives,” says Arpita Pal Agrawal, executive director and leader (telecom), PricewaterhouseCoopers.
However, Agrawal says there could be technical hurdles for the operators. In Bangladesh, call drop has more to do with network infrastructure quality, while it is more linked to lower quantum of spectrum in India (while number of subscribers is quite high). The ratio of spectrum quantity versus the total number of subscribers is much higher in India that leads to more call drops, she adds.
“Yes, call drop is a matter of concern for both consumers as well as the operators and operators are trying their best to reduce call drops,” admits Rajan Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).
“There are many reasons why a call drop happens, including network infrastructure, spectrum allocation, traffic as well as the handsets that consumers use. As long as operators abide by the quality of service standards, there is no need for such offers. If such an offer is initiated, there will be a lot of contentious between the operators and the subscribers, essentially the pre-paid users,” Mathews adds.
On the other hand, Agrawal says, to offer similar kind of offers, operators will have to work out the logistics which may also have substantial financial implications as the operators will have to pay the interconnection charges for the free minutes as well. This will also have negative impact on telcos’ profitability, she adds.
Indian operators, however, claim this is nothing new. Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest operator that also operates in Bangladesh, had reportedly launched such an initiative in 2004 as a special offer for a limited period.
In Andhra Pradesh circle, Bharti Airtel had offered a money-back guarantee to customers for dropped calls or poor quality services.
However, it was also noted that if a call drops, a post-paid user would have to repeat the call within five minutes, and pre-paid users were offered a refund of Rs 50 if they surrender their SIM cards within five days of purchase. However, the offer was discontinued, and Bharti Airtel did not revive that again.
On the other hand, Mathews says there are technical hassles and possible financial implications on the operators. “The industry is already under stress and such things would have negative impacts on the profitability of the telcos,” he adds.
The COAI boss also adds a call cycle is different in India and Bangladesh.
“In a per minute cycle, consumers lose more as even if the call is dropped or disconnected in just a few seconds, a consumer pays for the whole minute. With per second cycle in India, consumers don’t actually lose much,” Mathews says adding that operators need more spectrum to reduce call drop and better quality of service for the huge number of subscribers they have in key circles.
Also, there are issues like number of radiation limits of base stations (telecom switches) and limitation in numbers of mobile towers, operators claim.
Globally, primarily in the developed mobile markets, the cap for call drop is also2%. But, in most of the cases, the average call drop rate is much lower, sometimes even below 1%.
BBN/ASI-10Nov14-11:30pm (BST)