Airtel, RCom most congested networks in India

[Gauresh]

Airtel continued to maintain its leadership position but this time for a wrong reason, As per the latest network congestion report published by Trai, Bharti topped the charts with 56 Point of Interconnection (PoIs) having congestion. followed by Reliance Communications Ltd’s (RCom) 22 PoIs and 21 congested points for Dishnet Wireless Ltd-run Aircel service.

The networks of Vodafone Essar Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd with some 19 PoIs each ranked next, said the report.

Trai today released the PoI (point of interconnection) report for the April-June quarter, which said among the private service providers, Bharti Airtel has the largest number of PoIs having congestion (56 PoIs as of June) followed by Reliance Communications (22 PoIs), Dishnet Wireless (21 PoIs as of March), Vodafone (19 PoIs of March) and Idea (19 PoIs).

In order to ensure seamless interconnection, Trai has been monitoring the level of congestion at the point of interconnection between various service providers on a monthly basis.

The regulator said that the benchmark notified by the authority in the quality of service regulations in June 2005 for such congestion was less than 0.5%. “This means out of 200 calls between two (telecom) operators only one call should face congestion problem,” it said in a statement. It was not immediately clear how badly congested the PoIs were beyond this threshold.

The areas most affected by congested PoIs were Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, the North-East and Himachal Pradesh.

The period under review, when the number of Indian mobile phone customers increased to some 287 million in June from about 261 million in March, showed an overall lowering of the congested interconnect points. “The number of PoIs having congestion has decreased from 275 in March 2008 to 156 in June 2008.”

The telecom regulator said notices issued to six phone service providers for not meeting quality of service benchmarks related to PoI congestion are pending before the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal since March 2006.