Call drops: Telecommunications service provider to deploy 1 lakh new towers in India

NEW DELHI: Telecommunications service provider (TSP) have promised to install 1 lakh towers to address mobile call drops in India at meeting with Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha .

With this, TSP may invest Rs 20,000 crore in their infrastructure, thus each mobile tower is estimated to be around Rs 20 lakh.

“Telecom operators have installed 48,000 towers in last 45 days out of the 60,000 towers they promised to install in 100 days,”  said Sinha after a meeting with operators.

“They have committed to one-year plan. Their performance has been satisfactory but the government wants that improvement in networks to be experienced by consumers,” he added.

For more spectrum, Minister told the operators that spectrum auction will be conducted in September and it will resolve shortage of airwaves.

The government of India is gearing up for the largest spectrum auction.

Last month, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet has cleared the way for mega auction of spectrum in which airwaves worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore will be put for sale in country.

After approval of Prime Minister, more than 2300 MHz spectrum is available for auction across 7 bands and the 7 bands are : 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz bands.

TSP have also sought the opening up of new frequency bands — 71-76 gigahertz (GHz) and 50 GHz. Wireless services deployed in these bands are considered to deliver broadband speed of up to 1 gigabit per second as in case of optical fibres.

The government is working on uniform rule across the country regarding permits and fee charged for laying optical fibre network.