India’s operators have added more than 2,000 telecoms towers in the Delhi area over the past three months to address the spike in dropped calls.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) released data showing that dropped call rates have fallen significantly over that time, The Economic Times reported. Bharti Airtel’s fell from 3-18 per cent to 0.8-3 per cent, while Vodafone India’s declined from 1.5-6.6 per cent to 0.3-3 per cent. Reliance Communications’ drop call rate has come down to 0.02-5 per cent from 1.5-25 per cent, according to the DoT.

After the country’s dropped call problem worsened over the past year, the telecoms regulator in October ordered operators to compensate customers INR1 ($0.015) for each dropped call. The new regulation, which will go into effect 1 January, will limit operators to compensating customers for a maximum of three calls per day.

India’s mobile operators complained to the DoT that the planned penalty for dropped calls would cost the industry INR540 billion ($8.3 billion) a year and urged the minister to intervene.

Across the country operators have deployed an additional 22,279 mobile sites over the last three months, the Times said.

A study by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) found in October that the number of dropped calls during peak hours almost doubled from a year ago.