Telcos add over 2,000 towers in Delhi to check call drops

Telecom operators have added over 2,000 mobile towers in Delhi in the last three months to check the menace of call drops.

According to an official in Department of Telecom (DoT), as many as 2,092 mobile sites (2G and 3G) have been added in Delhi service area in the past 12 weeks which has resulted in the call drop rate to come down considerably.

Sharing data, the official said that Bharti Airtel, whose call drop rate was in the range of 2.92-17.77 per cent earlier has come down to 0.08-2.98 percent whereas that of Vodafone has dropped to 0.3-2.97 percent from 1.53-6.63 per cent in Delhi.

Reliance Communications, which had earlier a call drop rate in the range of 1.53-24.83 per cent has come down to 0.02-5.15 per cent and that of Idea Cellular has decreased to 0.14-2.65 percent from 3.34-10.90 per cent.

Across the country, the telecom operators have added 22,279 mobile sites in the last three months.

Apart from addition of mobile sites, operators are also deploying in-building solutions to check the problem.

The operators, however, are complaining about sealing of sites by local bodies like MCD, which hampers their efforts to reduce call drops.

An operator on condition of anonymity, said that if MCD seals, one mobile site in an area, it affects the remaining sites, which also makes it difficult for them to provide good quality services to customers.

The problem of call drops had become acute in the past months, though now it has started to improve. Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg had spoken to owners of telecom companies including Sunil Bharti Mittal and Anil Ambani to address the problem.

Even the telecom operators are accepting that their current service is not up to the mark and they are making serious efforts to improve in providing the best experience to their customers.

You can watch the news from World Wide News here:

Article Source: PTI

Image Source: iGovernment

TRAI dismisses fears about mobile towers imposing health hazards on people

Dismisses allegations that mobile towers are health hazards

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is the autonomous regulator of the telecommunications business in India. TRAI aims to create and nurture conditions for the growth of telecommunications in India to enable the country lead in the emerging global information society.

Earlier this month, TRAI dismissed the fears of mobile tower radiation posing threats to public health. It categorically stated that it conducted various studies across the country and the results of the studies did not corroborate the claim made by various dissenting voices, that of mobile towers causing health issues in people.

TRAI advisor SK Gupta, while addressing a meeting of major telecom service providers, stated, “There are 300 towers in Himachal and during the study conducted by TRAI no radiation was detected and the myth has been exploded.”

In the same meeting, he referred to the call drop and weak signal problem and stated that these call drops are due to the absence of adequate number of mobile towers, the solution of which is to increase the numbers and set up more towers to service the growing demand on mobile telephony.

The call drop problem has plagued users for the last couple of years. This problem was heightened due to the removal of several towers in Delhi over the last two years. Call drops are a menace not just for consumers, but for service providers since erecting cell towers is now becoming increasingly difficult. This lack of mobile towers has severely affected mobile call quality and has drastically increased call drop rates.

Minister of State, Ravi Shankar Prasad addressed the call drop issue and stated “If new mobile towers are not allowed to be installed, then call drops shall surely happen.”

We believe that for a better future and for a more “connected India”, more cell towers form the backbone of the infrastructure. With TRAI officially stating that mobile towers have no adverse effect on us we can rest assured.

Cell Phone – a weapon?

Isn’t it true that if you hit someone really hard on the head with your cell phone, in all likelihood, that person will sustain a big injury. It could even prove fatal! But is that because the cell phone is a weapon of mass destruction? Is it not also true that no matter what item you take in your hand; upon strong impact, it will hurt someone?

The point is rather simple. Just like a baby’s water bottle is a completely harmless thing that only serves as a convenience; a cell phone, at the end of the day, has made our lives exponentially more convenient. Our phones nowadays are our computers, our planners, our entertainment systems, our cameras; our constant and loyal companions. So when one hears absurd allegations like cell phone and cell phone tower radiation causing cancer, or causing harm to one’s health; its just really sad!

How many scientific tests and reports will it take to convince people that these radiations that emerge from cell phone technology are rather weak radio frequency that hardly have any energy at all! In fact, they are the very same waves are FM Radio. Surely if Radio, that has been around for decades, has not killed us; the humble cell phone won’t either!

Cell phone technology is made by responsible global organizations whose purpose is to alleviate our problems, not add to them. So unless we want to willingly and maliciously hurt someone with the brute force of our own bodies using our cell phones; by themselves, they continue to be totally harmless, immensely helpful items that have made modern life a tad more manageable, a bit more controllable. And that, is a very good thing!

Department of Telecommunications (DoT)

 

Telecommunications is the most important aspect of our lives today. In fact, communication is what has made the world as advanced and modern as it is today, thanks to the social, technological and economic advances it has brought about. And when something achieves such a magnitude of importance, it requires rules and regulations to help govern it and to help it grow and prosper.

In India, the Department of Telecommunications or the DoT is the governing body that looks into “Policy, Licensing and Coordination matters relating to telegraphs, telephones, wireless, data, facsimile and telematic services and other like forms of communications.”

Established on 11th April, 1989, the DoT was given multiple administrative and financial powers to administrate the various aspects of Telecommunications. This includes:

• International cooperation with regards to telecommunications, and co-operation with other international telecom bodies such as International Telecommunication Union (ITU), its Radio Regulation Board (RRB), Radio Communication Sector (ITU-R), Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), Development Sector (ITU-D), International Telecommunication Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), International Mobile Satellite Organization (INMARSAT), Asia Pacific Telecommunication (APT).

• Promotion of standardization, research and development in telecommunications.

• Promotion of private investment in Telecommunications

amongst other things.

Since Telecom is a major growth driver, the DoT has charted out a route map for India’s future in this sector. After all, India is is the fastest growing telecom sector in the world with more than 16 million subscribers being added every month. Further details can be found on the DoT website at – http://www.dot.gov.in

The vision of the Department is to “empower the people of India by providing secure,reliable, affordable and high quality converged telecommunication services anytime, anywhere.

 

 

Mobile Phones and Education

Most of us are appalled to see children even as young as 4 and 5 years of age using cell phones. If you are a little technologically challenged, don’t be surprised if the little one teaches you how to maneuver through the menus and lists to get where you want.

This is all fine, but aren’t many of us concerned on watching our young ones constantly glued to their phones? The lack of physical activity, addiction, health hazards, all cloud our mind and we worry where this current generation is headed.

But what if cell phones proved not to be that harmful? What if they helped develop a child’s well-being and personality instead of hampering it?

What if cell phones were used to revolutionise education?

A new term M-Education has been coined and it is currently poised to lead a major transformation in the education landscape. Ebooks, and mobile applications such as Dictionaries, Nursery Rhymes, Logarithmic tables, Maps, and even Entrance Exam preparation apps aid learning throughout the academic lifecycle. So, our children will be able to access these applications which are available for free or at a very small premium over the internet.

And I think it is not just the externally downloaded applications that aid learning.  A phone’s camera can be used by students to annotate their everyday assignments with pictures. The calendar and reminder features can help scheduling study time and mark important submission dates. Newsreaders, email, and internet access via gprs can keep the child up to date over current affairs and news.

If you feel that mobile-phone aided learning is and is going to remain a purely Urban phenomenon, you may want to think again.

In Rural India, local teachers introduced a simple mobile-based game to help primary school pupils from rural, low income households develop English-language comprehension, sentence construction and spelling. As a result, students’ test scores improved by almost 60 per cent. Teachers can teach in a more personalised way, increasing student engagement and attendance.

Through M-learning and e-learning, we can easily overcome geographic barriers as it provides learning at anytime from anywhere. Another advantage is that it will remove the need to physically attend a course, eliminating travel time and costs. It has been my observation that children from remote areas, especially females do not attend school because they must travel to far off places. Learning aided by mobile phones is poised to change all this. Free education that is easy to understand and assimilate will soon be available to all.

With advancements in technology, people want information instantly. People want to keep themselves updated via gadgets. They prefer reading newspapers on their gadgets. Education is also heading in the same direction.

In the next few years, I envision the telecom sector expanding at a neck breaking pace. There are fifteen verticals such as value added services, network security, service providers, handset manufacturers, telecom infrastructure, etc. which are in need of unique technology and skill management sets. The telecom sector will certainly grow at a rate of over 20% in the near future and according to the projection, jobs in this sector will grow at 7% every year.

Also, I strongly believe that with the increase in rural telecom density, M-Education will be the most feasible way to achieve government’s initiative of education for all, and bring about economic progress of the country.

 

For a free downloadable presentation on this topic and other related topics, follow TheRadiationDoctor on slideshare.