'Reliance and Idea have most clogged networks'
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 08 July 2009, 21:02 IST   |    24 Comments
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'Reliance and Idea have most clogged networks'
New Delhi: Reliance Telecom, Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular have the most congested networks; meanwhile Tata Teleservices has the least network congestion levels, according to an analysis by Telecommunications Regulation Authority of India (TRAI), for the period of January-March this year. According to the TRAI, the congestion levels were above the permissible limits in some 76 places surveyed, which is high as compared to 66 places in previous quarter. The levels had steadily come down and fallen to an all-time low during October- December '08, when networks were observed congested in only 66 places. Congestion in networks results in call drops and deterioration in voice quality. Also, it is the primary reason of consumers making repeated calls to get through. TRAI tracks congestion by evaluating the levels at the points of interconnection (PoI), the places where mobile traffic is exchanged between the networks of different operators. Congestion level is important parameters and signifies the ease by which customer's connect to another networks. The benchmark is set at less than 0.5 percent for this parameter, implying that in every 200 calls between two operators; only one call should face the problem of congestion. As of March 2009, Reliance Telecom and Idea both have congestion in 18 PoIs each, followed by Reliance Communications (16 POIs) and Vodafone (11 POIs). The most affected circles due to PoI are Bihar (13 PoIs), Andhra Pradesh and Kolkata (8 PoIs each) Assam and Himachal Pradesh (7 PoIs each) and Mumbai (6 PoIs). Although Bharti Airtel had the most congested network, it has shown lowest congestion levels, indicating rapid turnaround. It stands at second place followed by the Tatas in terms of the least congested networks.

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