Following large number of complaints over increasing call drops, Vodafone CEO and Managing Director Sunil Sood said the company was working on the issue and it would be resolved soon. When contacted by The Hindu , a TRAI official said the issue had been discussed with the operators and should be resolved within six months.
“The issue mainly concerns the Delhi service area, not entire India. The reason for this problem is frequency change. Last November, our license for 20 years expired and our frequency got changed,” Mr. Sood said.
He explained, “We have to change the tyres of a punctured car while the car is running. I can’t stop my network, close it down and change the frequency. I am trying to change the frequency while the network is running, at the same time the network is expanding in 3G and other areas…so that is a task.”
The issue was recently raised by the Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had called a meeting of operators to discuss the issue. According to TRAI’s performance monitoring report for the period ending December 31, Vodafone was not meeting some benchmarks for call drops in Delhi.
Total revenues up 13 %Meanwhile, Vodafone India, which on Tuesday posted 12.6 per cent jump in total revenues at Rs.42,526 crore for the fiscal ended March 2015, said it will roll out 4G services in the country by the end of this year.
“We are conducting 4G trials as we speak. We have spectrum in five circles and depending on the how the trial go we will decide the way forward,” Mr. Sood said.
No plan for zero schemeAmid debates over zero-rating platforms in the country, Vodafone said it did not plan to launch any such offer as of now.
“It’s just a price plan. There can be debate in favour of it or against it. Whatever government will decide we will follow it… Right now we don’t offer any zero rating plan and we do not intent to. We will wait for government regulations,” Mr. Sood added.
He reiterated that the company was supporting net neutrality and was ‘pro-OTT players and app developers.’ However, there was a need for level playing field or net-equality.
