Guwahati, May 12: Leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel today said it has initiated talks with the governments in the Northeast to set up additional base transceiver stations (mobile towers) to tackle the problem of call drops and improve services.

"We are in talks with governments in the Northeast for permission to set up additional base transceiver stations in the region. More towers would mean better support to increased load on our network because of a growing subscriber base and subsequently reduce dropped calls," Sameer Anjaria, chief executive officer, Airtel Northeast and Assam, said here today.

The termination (disconnection) of calls because of technical reasons before one of the speaking parties hang up their call is termed as call-drop.

"Airtel has over 5,000 base transceiver stations in the Northeast but we need more. There have been hurdles in terms of permission to set up mobile towers in the region which is something we wish to address soon," Anjaria said.

"The opposition in regard to permission for towers is more from the public than the government. But we have launched awareness drives in housing societies and residential colonies in Assam to inform people that mobile telephony is safe and educate them about the stringent norms that we follow regarding electro-magnetic radiation," he said.

A base transceiver station facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network. Telecom service providers heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday after the Supreme Court struck down a compensation policy for call drops levied by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

In October, TRAI had ordered operators to pay Re 1 for every call drop to the user, with a maximum of three per day. Airtel has a market share of about 45 per cent in the Northeast circle. Its market size in the region will be over Rs 5,000 crore. The service provider has a subscriber base of Rs 2.8 crore in the region.

As part of Project Leap, an initiative to modernise its network across the country, Bharti Airtel today launched Platinum 3G services across 60 towns in Assam. The project involves an investment of Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years.

The Platinum 3G service uses dual spectrum band - 900 MHz and 2100 MHz - to offer better customer experience through faster Internet speed, better indoor coverage and voice clarity. "The dual spectrum enables signals to travel a lot deeper for better indoor coverage. It will further help optimise the backend engagement between the network and mobile devices, thus allowing customers to enjoy extended battery life on their mobile devices," Anjaria said.

Platinum 3G does not require additional subscription and is part of the network enhancement of Airtel's existing 3G network.