TRAI: Airtel has the most congested GSM network during Oct-Dec

[shivendra]

In an analysis done by TRAI, Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel had the most congested GSM network during October- December 2008, followed closely by Vodafone, an analysis by sector regulator Trai has said.

Among the mobile service providers, Bharti Airtel had the largest number of points of interconnection (POIs) with congestion during the period, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said.

During the October-December 2008 period, Airtel had 14 POIs with congestion, while Vodafone was the second most congested network with 12 POIs, followed by Reliance Communications and Idea with 11 each, and Dishnet Wireless with eight.

To ensure seamless inter-connection, TRAI monitors the level of congestion at the POIs among various service providers on a monthly basis.

This parameter signifies the ease with which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. It also reflects as to how effective is the inter-connection between two networks.

The benchmark notified by TRAI for this parameter is less than 0.5 percent. This means that out of 200 calls between two operators, only one call should face a congestion problem.

During the period, the Cellular Mobile Telephone Subscriber base has increased from 315.31 million in September 2008 to 346.89 million in December 2008, while the number of POIs with congestion has decreased from 129 in September 2008 to 66 in December 2008. (RB-30/03)

[Broad-Man]

Network congestion leads to call drops, deterioration in voice quality and is the primary reason that drives consumers to repeat calls. There were 526 highly congested areas in year 2006 and 134 in the June 2008 quarter.