The telecom regulator has ruled that an incoming voice call on a mobile phone must ring for at least 30 seconds, resolving the deadlock that emerged when Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel had locked horns over the matter. Operators would have to maintain the time duration of alert for an incoming voice call, which is neither answered nor rejected by the called party, to 30 seconds for cellular mobile telephone services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Friday.
“Access Provide would have to maintain the time duration of alert for an incoming voice call, which is neither answered nor rejected by the called party, to thirty seconds for Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and sixty seconds for Basic Telephone Service. The terminating network shall, on expiry of thirty seconds in case of Cellular Mobile Telephone Service and sixty seconds in case of Basic Telephone Service, release the incoming voice call and transmit the call release message to the originating network. However, originating network may release an unanswered call after ninety seconds in case the call release message is not received from the terminating network,” says TRAI.
The ringing time also impacts network efficiency. The maximum time allowed to answer the call takes on more importance as the alerting phase also engages scarce radio spectrum resources. Ringing for a long time, when a user is unlikely to accept the phone call, would led to non-optimal utilization of resources.