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"The PoI congestion report for April to June shows the performance of mobile operators with respect to congestion on points of interconnection (PoI) has improved a little in June as compared to March," TRAI said in its report.
The regulator has set a benchmark that the number of calls facing congestion problems should be below 0.5 per cent of the total calls taking place between two networks, meaning that only 1 out of 200 calls could have jams.
Although the number of PoIs having jams has decreased from 499 in March to 457 in June, 218 PoIs have a congestion level of over 5 per cent. In March, 245 PoIs had this level of network jams.
But, TRAI says its powers of regulating interconnection and related congestion matters are facing legal challenges.
The matter is pending before the Supreme Court against an earlier TDSAT order, which had ruled against TRAI's power to regulate interconnection matters among the service providers.
Network congestion results in loss of calls, poor quality of service, repeated call attempts, all ending in subscribers' dissatisfaction.
PoIs where the level of congestion is over 10 per cent is 151 in June, compared to 181 in March. The number of worst affected PoIs where the level of congestion is more than 40 per cent is 46 in June, same as in March.
The network congestion from private mobile players to BSNL has also decreased with the number of PoIs with jam decreasing from 337 in March to 312 in June. PoI congestion among private mobile players has come down from 162 in March to 145 in June.
The states badly affected due to congestion are Bihar, Gujarat, J&K, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, North East, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
TRAI said the confusion in its powers has resulted in the slow progress in addressing the problem. In fact, TRAI's show cause notice to six operators last year over non-compliance of quality of service has also been challenged at TDSAT.