Call drop: panel to submit report before Winter Session

Call drops, a matter over which even Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed concern, will be taken up by the standing committee on information technology and telecom. “From our initial meetings with telecom companies during the net neutrality hearings, they shared that they found it difficult to install towers despite expanding subscriber base because of resistance from local authorities and local people due to health fears related to tower radiation,” he said. “I feel however that telecom companies who have been on the cusp of the digital revolution for sometime should have realised the direction in which technology and their own plans for their companies were going, their profits have doubled from when mobile revenue was only based on voice calls to data, and yet tower strength has remained static,” he said. He added that the state telecom entity, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had not spent much in the UPA years on infrastructure upgrade, but that private companies would have to come up with better explanations. He said his committee would look at the net neutrality issue and the call drop matter “only from the prism of consumer interest”.