The Union Telecom Ministry is working to resolve the call disconnection issue on a war footing, following several complaints.

Call interruption occurs when the call is disconnected unexpectedly and has become one of the most common complaints among mobile phone users. Several factors contribute to this problem, including network congestion, inadequate infrastructure, low signal strength, and interference caused by environmental conditions.

The ministry indicated that monitoring of the quality of the service will be carried out on a monthly basis from April 2025, in comparison with the three-year monitoring service. Notably, call quality control was previously carried out at the tower level and now it will be carried out at the smartphone level.

While previously a local service area (LSA) was carried out to check quality, the ministry will now carry out monitoring at the cell level. The government is trying to approach the issue of call interruptions through a more micro-micro approach.

The ministry plans to install 27,000 towers and connect 26,000 villages across the country to improve connectivity.

SAVE CITIZENS FROM ONLINE FRAUD

The government is now seeking to impose financial disincentives on telecommunications companies that do not comply with the guidelines.

Graduated financial disincentives of up to Rs 3 lakh per parameter will be imposed in case of non-compliance, for consecutive non-compliance with the defined norms on 30 parameters.

The ministry has also taken note of frauds and scams occurring across the country.

The number of frauds committed online is increasing alarmingly, and to tackle this, the government has set up a Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) for real-time information sharing on telecommunications abuse.

So far, 750 organizations are helping the ministry, including police, banks and regulatory agencies.

Block spoofed calls: A system to block incoming spoofed international calls with Indian phone numbers was launched on October 24. The system blocked approximately 13.5 million calls per day (89.8 percent of those calls), according to an official statement.

Sanchar Saathi: Sanchar Saathi is a citizen-centric platform that allows people to report suspicious calls and messages. So far, more than 2.5 million mobile connections have been disconnected using the platform. Apart from this, more 2.29 lakh phones have been blocked for involvement in cybercrime and financial fraud.

The government has blacklisted over 71,000 sellers and registered an FIR against 1,900 others. A survey also led to the recovery of over 12.59 lakh stolen and lost mobile phones. The government has also disconnected over 18 lakh numbers in connection with the fraud.

This crackdown also extends to SMS fraud, where more than 3.5 million unused and unverified email headers and 1.2 million content templates have been blocked.