In a number of areas, the degree of congestion between the operators is alarming, it said. A major cause of concern is that the congestion is largely between the private operators and BSNL.
The benchmark for the inter network congestion level for an acceptable quality of service is less than 0.5 per cent, TRAI said.
In the last one year, TRAI had discussed the issue with all CMSPs including BSNL, but the situation has shown no perceivable improvement, it said in the network congestion report for July.
In a number of major and minor cities, the level of congestion between the networks of private operators and the BSNL network is far more than this benchmark and the number of such places are increasing.
In the month of January 2005, there were about 24 places having congestion level more than 10 per cent -- twenty times worse than the benchmark.
In July 2005, the number of such places has increased to 86. In Patna, the congestion level of Bharti and Reliance (with Level I tax) was 35.4 per cent and 61.5 per cent respectively.
In Agra, the congestion level of major private operators -- Bharti, Idea and Reliance with BSNL was 56.9 per cent, 48.3per cent and 30.2 per cent respectively.
In Lucknow, the congestion level of Bharti, Reliance and Hutch with BSNL was 71.8 per cent, 54.2 per cent and 19 per cent respectively.
© 2026