| | OCTOBER 20258Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced that India's telecommunications services rank within the world's top three, with ongoing initiatives aimed at enhancing their performance even further.He mentioned that stricter standards for overseeing service quality at the cellular level have been implemented starting October 1."It will not be an exaggeration to say that Indian telecom services are among top three nations and our efforts are on to improve them further," Scindia says.According to him, India has enhanced its position in the Network Readiness Index 2024, climbing to 49th place from the previous year's 60th position, and has achieved Tier-1 status in the Global Cybersecurity Index with a rating of 98.49 out of 100.Regarding service quality, he mentioned that all four telecommunications companies have provided their initial reports following new guidelines on October 1, and conversations are underway to address areas where their service quality falls short of established standards.The telecommunications regulatory authority TRAI has put into effect standards that previously assessed service quality at the circle level but now evaluates it at the cellular level."The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is monitoring, studying and also identifying...wherever there are indications of Green, Yellow or Red, and we have been asking them the path where there is a yellow or a red indication, so that poor network can be resolved at the earliest," he said.The Minister additionally noted that multiple cases of Red alerts occurred in states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as a result of sudden flooding, which led to the destruction of numerous telecommunications devices. The administration is also making efforts to address these problems.The official reported that the Sanchar Saathi platform attracted 200 million users, facilitated the retrieval of 600,000 missing mobile devices, and led to the termination of 8.2 million fraudulent connections. He further mentioned that the International Spoofed Calls Prevention System successfully blocked 13.5 million deceptive calls in its first day of operation, and the financial Fraud Risk Indicator identified 350,000 suspicious phone numbers, resulting in the freezing of one million associated bank accounts."AI-based tools like ASTR have disconnected more than 82-lakh fraudulent mobile connections, while the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator system has prevented scams worth nearly 200 crore. Google has now joined this effort, which is a huge fillip," he noted.He observed that a consolidated digital intelligence platform (DIP) currently facilitates information exchange across more than 750 governmental and private organizations, encompassing all state administrations, financial institutions, and law enforcement bodies.Additionally, Scindia emphasized that India Post plans to introduce 8 new offerings starting January 2026, which will include a guaranteed mail and package service featuring delivery commitments of 24 and 48 hours.He also noted that the government intends to convert India Post from a 'cost centre' into a 'profit centre' by 2029.The Department of Posts (DoP), working together with the Department of Ex-servicemen (DESW), has additionally introduced a specialized service to enable the collection, registration, transmission, and home delivery of medications that are unavailable at ECHS polyclinics within the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS). INDIAN TELECOM SERVICES AMONG TOP THREE GLOBALLY: SCINDIAIN FOCUS
< Page 7 | Page 9 >