PTI report. The report said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has written to the Union Health Ministry requesting it to drop these pre-call announcements and caller tunes.
It cited representations received from Cellular Operators Association of India (COA) as well as mobile subscribers. "The health ministry is now considering removal of these audio clips in view of the improved pandemic situation in the country even as other measures for spreading public awareness about the safeguards against the viral disease will continue," an official source told PTI.
The instructions for implementation of coronavirus pre-call announcements and caller tunes to Telecom Service Providers were issued by DoT following directions received from the Union Health Ministry.
The telecom service providers (TSPs) have been playing the pre-call announcements and caller tunes related to coronavirus to spread awareness amongst citizens and tell them about the precautions and vaccination to be taken during the pandemic. "After the passage of around 21 months, these announcements have served the intended purpose of awareness creation amongst the citizens and serve no value now. "The message being played across networks invariably results in holding up and delaying critical calls from going through during emergencies and ends in consumption of precious bandwidth resources.