Telecom infrastructure, voice quality should improve: Ravi Shankar

New Delhi: Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday reiterated the need for telecom service providers to improve infrastructure and strengthen voice quality.

Speaking at the 88th annual general meeting of FICCI, he also said if regulators and government insist that the telecom companies have to provide certain quality of services, then the firms need to oblige.

"We will continue to be tough on service quality as committed," he said.

Incessant call drops incidents have created a lot of furore in the country this year.

Read Also: Government promises 'stern' steps to address call drop menace

Recently, Prasad said there is a need for the telecom service operators to ramp up networks to improve service quality, and he does not wish to be known as "call drop minister".

The minister also said on Saturday: "While I applaud telecom operators for spreading mobile services in the nook and corner of the country, I am equally concerned that quality of service must be maintained."

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had decided to impose a penalty of Re.1 for dropped calls from January 1, 2016. A notification from the TRAI earlier said the calling customer will get a credit of Re.1 per call drop, limited to three such occurrences per day in a 24-hour cycle. Following that, the mobile operators have to send them an SMS within four hours.

Talking about the postal department, an upbeat Prasad said that he has asked the department to encourage e-commerce activities in the rural areas.

Regarding the payments banks licence which was granted to the department, Prasad mentioned how his government pushed for the licence despite opposition to it.