New Delhi, Dec 19 (IANS): Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday reiterated that the telecom service providers need to improve infrastructure and strengthen voice quality.

The minister, speaking at the annual general meeting of FICCI, also said if regulators and government insist that the telecom companies have to provide certain quality of services, then the firms need to oblige.

"We will continue to be tough on service quality as committed," he said.

Incessant call drops incidents have created a lot of furore in the country this year.

Recently, Prasad said there is a need for the telecom service operators to ramp up networks to improve service quality, and he does not wish to be known as "call drop minister".

Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) decided to impose a penalty of Re.1 for dropped calls from January 1, 2016.

A notification from the TRAI earlier said the calling customer will get a credit of Re.1 per call drop, limited to three such occurrences per day in a 24-hour cycle.

Following that, the mobile operators have to send them an SMS within four hours.