NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reiterated that the newly-introduced penalty for call drops slated to come into effect from January will not be withdrawn.

In a meeting with the chief executive officers of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to apprise them about the findings of the drive tests conducted recently in Delhi and Mumbai, TRAI said an audit of networks in Mumbai and Delhi had shown showed unsatisfactory network quality.

TRAI, which had carried out special independent drive tests for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services in the Mumbai and Delhi in June and July and then in September this year, will carry out fresh audits in December to review the situation. There were no significant improvement in the performance of the TSPs.

The findings of these tests along with a consolidated analysis of the reports were uploaded on TRAI website.

The service providers had stated in their meeting with TRAI that they had taken and continue to take a number of steps to improve the quality of network in these areas and that the quality of service had improved.

In the meeting, the findings of the test drive were discussed and the service providers were requested to take action for further improvement of the network conditions.

TRAI officials agreed to share with service providers and other stakeholders the independent drive tests carried In other major cities - Surat, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Ahmedabad.

The service providers had stated that there are a number of other issues affecting quality of service of the network resulting in call drops. The Authority assured it would extend whatever help possible to the telecom service providers.