Bharti Airtel, Vodafone implementing Self Optimising Network technology to tackle call drops

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are implementing a software solution called Self Optimising Network (SON) technology to tackle the call drop menace and improve the overall network stability across the country.
The country’s top two mobile operators have both partnered with networking major Cisco for SON technology that promises to significantly improve voice call quality and reduce dropped call rates, besides offering higher data speed and better accessibility, industry officials said. Mobile operators are under pressure to check call drops and the industry regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), in a recent order mandated telcos to compensate subscribers Re 1 for each call dropped.



Telcos have contended the order in the court. Airtel is deploying SON across its 2G, 3G and 4G networks. The total footprint currently standing at nearly 40,000 sites in the country, a person familiar with the matter said, adding that the leading telco will expand SON footprint to 90,000 sites covering 20 cities across the country in the near future.

Airtel first deployed this technology in Delhi and Bengaluru in 2014, and the technology has also reached cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, the person said.

Vodafone has deployed SON over onethird of its network but only for the 3G technology. The telco, which has more than 194 million customers in the country, said the deployment will continue until the entire network is SON-enabled.

“We are confident that our ongoing fruitful relationships with Cisco will help us delight our users with a great quality of both voice and data services,” Vishant Vora, director of technology at Vodafone India, said in a statement.

An industry official, however, said Vodafone’s move to implement SON only for 3G will not be effective because handovers to 2G and possibly 4G would still remain unoptimised. Therefore, the telco should also look at extending this service to 2G and 4G technologies as well, the person said.

Bharti Airtel's chief technology officer Abhay Savargaonkar, in a recent interaction with ET, said, “We are the first ones to take this initiative. Everybody will have to eventually move to SON.”