Thailand will tighten call drop regulations

Thai regulator NBTC will introduce stricter standards governing the quality of mobile signals in an effort to address a growing number of complaints related to dropped calls.

The NBTC will amend current regulations, which require operators not to exceed a dropped call rate of 15% across all calls, to instead require operators to maintain this rate in each of Thailand’s service areas.

The new regulations, which are expected to come into effect in September, have been implemented in response to the fact that in more busy service areas with congested traffic dropped call rates are much higher than the average.

In addition to the new regulation, the NBTC has given five mobile operators – AIS, Dtac, True Move, CAT Telecom and TOT – 15 days to resolve their dropped call problems.

According to the report as of May there were 994 complaints involving dropped calls from AIS, 497 from Dtac, 386 from True Move, 32 from CAT and seven from TOT. Complaints are picking up now operators are focusing on customer acquisition strategies to maximize their 4G investments.

Indian regulator Trai is also focusing heavily on the issue of call drops.