TRAI Seeks Views On Maximum Duration For Phone Calls To Ring for Optimised Use of Network Resources

In telecommunication networks, the ring tone is used to alert the called party about an incoming call, but a fine balance has to be struck giving suitable time for the caller to pick a call and optimal utilization of network resources.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) seems to be on a spree of introducing new consultation papers. The sector regulator has issued a lot of consultation papers in the past few months only and in a new development now, TRAI has floated another consultation paper which has a unique proposition. As per an ET Telecom report, the topic of the new consultation paper floated by Trai has to do with how long the phone should ring or the maximum permissible ringing time for a call so that the resources like spectrum and other network resources as optimal used. The telecom regulator has now sought the view of the various experts and industry stakeholders on this consultation paper.

Lowering of Ringing Duration Possible

The regulator has also posed the question about whether or not the consumers can be given the choice of customising the ring time for themselves thus taking a step towards better customer service and ho it can be done. Currently, the maximum ringing time is controlled by the network on which the subscriber is on. When the maximum permissible ringing time is achieved, then the network releases the connection forcefully, in case the other person does not pick up the call.

Trai, in its ‘Duration Alert for Called Part’ paper remarked, “The maximum time allowed to answer calls takes on more importance in mobile networks as the alerting phase engages scarce radio spectrum resources.” There is also the fact to consider that mobile users carry their handset wherever they go and hence they are more likely to respond faster as compared to a telephone which is likely to be kept far away in a household.

One Telco Changes Ringing Duration for Calls

TRAI also said that ringing the phone for longer periods when the called party is not eager to answer could lead to sub-par optimisation of resources. But, there is also the thought to consider that if the ring time is tweaker to be too low, then it might hinder the customer experience as the called person might not have enough time to answer the call.

A telecom operator has already made a change to its call ringing time, and the company said that it has reduced the ringing time already to 20 seconds. Now, this can have a ripple effect across the industry and might impact the performance of other mobile and landline operators who offer long duration of call ringing.

Now there is a case of bringing uniformity into the industry to make sure that no such thing happens. Ring time in mobile networks is usually 45 to 60 seconds, whereas, in the case of landlines, it is 60 to 120 seconds. The deadline for comments and counter comments on the new consultation paper have been set as September 30 and October 7, respectively. Trai has also discussed whether or not guidelines will be needed to configure call ring time and to bring uniformity to it.