89% mobile users experience call drop issues: Survey

New Delhi: Around 89 per cent mobile phone users report facing call connection and drop issues in 2024, says the latest survey report.

A total 38 per cent of them are facing over 20 per cent or more of their calls regularly, says the LocalCircles survey.

Due to regular complaints from mobile subscribers over the last 12 months, LocalCircles conducted a national survey to gauge consumers' experience with mobile networks in the last 3 months.

The survey received over 32,000 responses from citizens located in 362 districts of India. 64 per cent respondents were men while 36 per cent respondents were women. 44 per cent respondents were from tier 1, 33 per cent from tier 2 and 23 per cent respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts. The survey was conducted between March and June 2024, said a statement from the LocalCircles.

To a question on when you have a bad connection, how long does it generally take before the call drops? Only 5 per cent of those surveyed indicated that the call “doesn’t drop automatically”.

However, 41 per cent of the respondents indicated that “it drops after 0-30 seconds of bad connection”; 27 per cent of respondents indicated “it drops after 30-60 seconds of bad connection”; 27 per cent of respondents indicated “it usually drops after bad connection for a minute or more” and 4 per cent did not give a clear response opting for “can’t say”. To sum up, 50 per cent of citizens surveyed say their calls don’t automatically drop within 30 seconds despite a bad connection, said the survey report.
 
"The situation is such that 1 in 3 citizens surveyed indicated that they are regularly making Wi-Fi calls through OTT platforms as they face call connectivity and drop issues. Not so surprisingly, over the last 2 years, there is an increase in the percentage of citizens now making Wi-Fi calls through OTT platforms as they face call connectivity and drop issues with their mobile network. Advancement in technology, as TRAI has noted, has not helped to improve mobile connectivity. In the last 2 years, there has been an increase in the percentage of citizens reporting calls dropping automatically within 30 seconds due to bad connection," the statement said.

"The telecom regulator is aware of the increase in connectivity and call drop issues and is in the process of conducting quality review more frequently. It would help if the telecom operators, while being allowed to hike the tariff, should also be made more accountable for the services which now come at a higher cost if the consumer migrated to what promises to be a better and faster service," the statement said.

Recently, all the three major telecom service providers i.e. Jio, Airtel and VI increased tariffs by 10-25 per cent.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has clarified that telecom service providers (TSPs) have raised mobile service prices after more than two years as “some of the TSPs have invested heavily in rolling out the 5G services across the country. This has resulted in a significant increase in median mobile speed to the level of 100 Mbps.