From correspondents in Delhi, India, 09:00 PM IST

Bihar has emerged as the most congested telecom circle, the industry watchdog said here Monday.

It also said Bharti Airtel is the service provider with the highest level of congestion.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said Bihar led the list of most congested states, the others being Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, the Northeast states and Himachal Pradesh.

It, however, said the congestion level has decreased in the April-June quarter across the country.

In order to ensure seamless interconnection, TRAI has been monitoring the level of congestion at the point of inter-connection (PoI) between the various service providers on a monthly basis.

This parameter signifies the ease with which a subscriber of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network.

It also reflects the effectiveness of interconnection between the two networks.

A TRAI notification issued in July 2005 stipulates that out of 200 calls between two operators, only one call should face congestion problem - reflecting a congestion level of 0.5 percent.

However, in June TRAI said this was more than five percent, or 10 times the desired level.

The report also said that leading telecom player Bharti Airtel tops the list of most congested networks, with followed by Reliance Communications (RCom), Dishnet Wireless, Vodafone and Idea.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)