Telecom regulator to ask operators for call masking details

New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) The Indian telecom regulator will soon ask service providers to give details of radio link timeout (RLT) or call masking technology used by them.

“Before setting up any enquiry, we will seeks details of RLT from telecom operators around parameters applicable globally, that they are following here and parameters that they have been following over a period of year," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), chairman, R.S. Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of India Satcom event.

The RLT technology is also called call masking technology. After a call is placed, it should get automatically disconnected when a user moves to an area with poor network. This qualifies as a "call drop" under the existing norms laid down by the regulator.

But there have been complaints that operators have been using RLT technology, by which such calls remain artificially connected -- and continue to be billed -- till the user physically terminates it.

And when such a call is disconnected, it does not get registered as a dropped call.

Most telecom service providers failed to meet the call drop rate threshold of less than two percent in the national capital region (NCR) during a recent test drive, data revealed by the sector regulator showed.

The TRAI on Tuesday will come out with the test drive results in Bhopal and Hyderabad.