Airtel, Reliance topped in Congestion too

The telecom market leader Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication has also topped the congestion list released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday.

The report has been prepared on congestion recorded at ‘Point of Interconnection (POI) with other networks’ during April-June 2008. The term ‘congestion’ refers to the call route traffic where despite of several dials call cannot be completed.

Bharti Airtel, the leader in the mobile market that claims to provide the best services in the industry, has been trapped again by TRAI in terms of POI congestion during April-June.

Reliance, the second largest mobile players that claims to have over 50-million subscribers has also secured second position in TRAI’s fresh POI congestion list. The telecom regulator has recorded RCom’s POI congestion at 22 POIs, while Dishnet Wireless or Aircel are recorded on the third slot with 21 POIs.

Airtel, the topper has faced congestion on 56 POI’s in June while the next rank goes to Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular jointly with 19 POIs.

According to TRAI, the benchmark point should be less than 0.5% which means out of 200 calls between two operators, only one call should face congestion problem.

TRAI in a release said that the POI congestion parameter reflected as to ‘how effective is the interconnection between two networks?’

The regulator also reported that a declination has been shown in state run telecom players – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) – from 118 POIs in March to 94 POIs in June, while it also added that in the same duration, POI congestion has also been decreased in private players too, as it was 157 in March and dipped to 62 in June, 2008.

According to TRAI, the subscribers grew in this duration by 25-millions. The total number of congestion in March was 275, which dunked to 156 in June.

During this period, TRAI has found most congestion in the circle of Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and North Eastern states.

Earlier TRAI had issued notice to six telecom players in this regard which is still pending before Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) since March 2006.

The regulatory body has also warned the telecom players to hike the investment for establishing more towers and other means to provide quality service to the customers.