Government to launch toll free number '1955' for call drops

[rahul1117kumar]

Government is planning to start soon a toll free number 1955 for taking feedback of telecom subscribers on call drops .

"Short code 1955 has been allotted for IVRS system on call drop," an official source said.
Provisioning of this number will be mandatory for telecom operators and should be accessible for local and STD calling.

As per a letter by the Department of Telecom to operators in last week of November the '1955' number "is for the outbound calls to the subscribers, the IVRS system will have to present a pre-defined CLI (caller line identification) to the subscribers, through short code '1955'."

State-run telecom firm MTNL has been directed to configure this short code. Telecom operators have been directed not to charge any integration, maintenance, operational fee from MTNL.

Official sources said that Telecom Minister
Manoj Sinha will launch the service but did not disclose any further details.

When contacted industry body, Cellular Operators Association of India said that the industry has sought further technical clarifications from DoT on routing, charges etc for the implementation of the short code 1955 for IVRS system.

"The response is awaited. The industry remains committed towards addressing the issue of call drops and is continuously working shoulder to shoulder with the government, enhancing both investment and infrastructure," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

MTNL: government to launch toll free number '1955' for call drops, Telecom News, ET Telecom

 

[rahul1117kumar]

Telecom department launches IVRS system to get customer feedback on call quality

India’s telecom department (DoT) has rolled out an Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) system in cities like Delhi and Mumbai to get direct feedback from telecom subscribers on call quality to solve the problem of call drops .

The IVRS system is also live in Punjab, UP, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Goa, and it will be extended to the entire country very soon by the country’s telecom department (DoT), according to an official statement.

“The platform is a channel to capture direct feedback from the consumers and this voice of the customer can be used to improve the services that are being offered to them,” Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha said.
Sinha said that the government will initially use the platform for call drops and will extend this to capture consumer feedback in other areas as well in the future.

Telecom subscribers will receive an IVRS call from the short code 1955 , and they will be asked questions such as whether they are facing or not (facing) call drops in their area. Subscribers, in return, can send a toll-free SMS to the same short code 1955, containing the location of city/town/village, where they might be facing the problem of frequent call drops.

The feedback of the subscribers will be shared with Indian telecom carriers so that they can take corrective steps in the identified areas, to improve the mobile network for addressing the problem of call drops.

In a bid to tackle the call drop menace, India’s telcos have installed more than 1,30,000 additional BTSs or Base Transceiver Stations across the country during the period from June 2016 to October 2016. They further plan to install more than 1,50,000 additional BTSs across the country up to March 31, 2017, the official release said.

Sinha, earlier this month, after meeting with the heads of telecom operators, had warned telcos that his Ministry will not hesitate on slapping penalty and other actions in case consumers continue to face the menace of call drops and call failures. “Till consumers say that they are free of call drops, I won't accept it,” the Minister had then said, while revealing the Ministry’s plan to set up a platform for consumers to provide direct feedback on call drops.

Earlier this month, the minister in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha said that here has been a “consistent improvement” in performance of telecom service providers in meeting the benchmark for call drop parameters, as per regulator Trai’s quarterly reports between September 2015 and June 2016.

call drops: telecom department launches ivrs system to get customer feedback on call quality, Telecom News, ET Telecom