(a) whether the 4G technology has been introduced across the nation including in the rural areas of the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
(c) whether the data published on TRAI''s website showed 4G speed on the network of new telecom operators slower than speeds offered by other telecom companies; and
(d) if so, the details thereof and the response of the telecom service providers along with the reaction of the Government thereto?
THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)
(a) & (b) As reported by various Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), the details of launch of 4G services are as follows:
(i) M/s Bharti Airtel Limited has launched its 4G services in all service areas across the country except Assam and Jammu & Kashmir service area and is providing 4G services in 1900 census towns and 10,000 villages.
(ii) M/s Idea Cellular Limited has launched its 4G services in 11 service areas namely Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Odisha, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
(iii) M/s Reliance Communications Limited/ M/s Reliance Telecom Limited has launched its 4G services in all service areas across the country except Jammu & Kashmir service area and is providing 4G services in 519 District Headquarters and 4350 towns.
(iv) M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has launched its 4G services in all service areas across the country and is providing 4G services in 18000 cities and towns and over 2 lakh villages.
(v) M/s Vodafone India Limited has launched its 4G services in 9 service areas namely Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal and is providing 4G services in 734 towns/ villages.
(c) & (d) TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) had recently launched TRAI analytics portal www.analytics.trai.gov.in. This portal has three sub-portals viz. TRAI QoS Analytics Portal, TRAI MySpeed Portal and TRAI Drive Test Portal. TRAI had also launched a mobile App named “TRAI My Speed”. This application allows customers to measure their data speed experience and sends the results to TRAI. The application captures and sends coverage, data speed and other network information along with device and location of the tests to the TRAI - “MySpeed” Portal. The TRAI - “MySpeed” Portal allows the users to explore the mobile data experience of consumers across India. The information displayed on the web site is based on crowd sourced data collected over a period of time and spread over geographical area. The data is dynamic in nature and varies from service area to service area, location to location and even down to small area zoomed out in the map of India, based on users of the mobile app, the location of the user, the network traffic in the area, the mobile device of the user etc. This dynamic data is displayed separately for 3G services, 4G services and for all services (which is an average of speed achieved for all technologies).
The download speed of wireless data services is dependent on various factors like number of subscribers in a particular cell, shrinkage of coverage area due to the nature of technology for 3G and 4G services upon loading, subscriber moving in a building/ basement/ lift etc. having poor coverage and therefore the data speed varies not only from place to place and operator to operator but also on different time instants.
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