Question : Mobile Towers of Telecom PSUs

a) whether the mobile towers of telecom PSUs the MTNL and the BSNL are not sufficient to cater to the network requirement of the total number of subscribers;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government for expansion of their network capacity, PSU-wise;

(c) whether many of the towers installed by BSNL particularly in rural and hilly areas are non-operational and some of the towers have to be removed which are found to be violating the installation norms;

(d) if so, the details of non-functional towers, and the towers which have been removed, State-wise including Himachal Pradesh and U.P.; and

(e) the action taken by these PSUs to augment their network capacity and to provide the required equipments and fund to bring the non-operational towers in operation, PSU-wise?

THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS &
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS
(SHRI MANOJ SINHA)


(a) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) are providing telecom services including mobile service in their respective license service areas and are meeting benchmarks of most of the QoS(Quality of Service) parameters prescribed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The capacity of mobile network is sufficient to service the subscriber base.

(b) State/Circle wise status as on 30.9.2016 of working BTSs (Base Transceiver Station) is at Annexure-I.

In areas where there are weak signals and network problems exist, to further enhance capacity of BSNL mobile network, Phase-VII+ project is under rollout. State/Circle wise details of towers planned to be installed by BSNL in this project is given at Annexure-II.



MTNL is expanding/upgrading its 3G network in Delhi and Mumbai as detailed below:
I. Expansion of GSM / 3G RF network in Delhi: MTNL is in the process of expansion of mobile network by adding 1080 number of 3G sites for higher Data handling capacity. Purchase order of Rs 295 Cr. has been placed on 18.06.2016 for adding 1080 number of 3G sites in Delhi.
II. 3G Network Up-Gradation in Mumbai:MTNL has also planned to upgrade the existing 3G network in Mumbai to make it a high speed network of ‘HSPA+ version’. Purchase Order of Rs 28 Cr has been placed. After the proposed up-gradation, the customers will get a downlink speed of 21.1 Mbps & uplink speed of 5.76 Mbps which is presently of 3.6 Mbps & 384 Kbps respectively. Project is under advanced stage of implementation.
(c) As per information received from BSNL, it is not violating any norms during installation of mobile towers. As on 30.11.2016, a total of 697 towers are non-operational in the country due to various reasons.

(d) No tower has been removed by BSNL due to violation of installation norms including in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. However, 13 towers are non-operational in Himachal Pradesh due to non-availability of power supply from the State Electricity Board.

(e) The action taken to augment network capacity is as detailed in (b) above. The towers are non-operational not due to equipment and faults but largely due to techno-commercial reasons.








Annexure-I
State/Circle wise details of BTS working
<pre>
S.No Name of Circle No. of working 2G BTS No. of working 3G Node B
A BSNL
1 ANDHRA PRADESH 7655 3645
2 ANDMAN & NICOBAR 152 43
3 ASSAM 1433 869
4 BIHAR 2950 905
5 CHENNAI TD 1872 967
6 CHHATTISGARH 1918 518
7 GUJARAT 4643 2367
8 HARYANA 2172 1203
9 HIMACHAL PRADESH 1252 397
10 JAMMU & KASHMIR 1189 473
11 JHARKHAND 1991 853
12 KARNATAKA 5710 2601
13 KERALA 5408 2906
14 KOLKATTA TD 1276 706
15 MADHYA PRADESH 3865 1247
16 MAHARASHTRA 7398 2630
17 NORTH EAST I 784 349
18 NORTH EAST II 752 366
19 ODISHA 3225 1438
20 PUNJAB 3489 1603
21 RAJASTHAN 4245 1565
22 TAMIL NADU 5834 2360
23 UTTAR PRADESH (EAST) 5996 1908
24 UTTAR PRADESH (WEST) 2837 1361
25 UTTARAKHAND 1058 491
26 WEST BENGAL 2543 638
TOTAL BSNL: 81647 34409
B MTNL:
1 DELHI 1114 749
2 MUMBAI 983 690
TOTAL MTNL: 2097 1439
</pre>

Annexure-II
Planned BTSs of Phase VII+ GSM rollout project
<pre>
S.N Name of Circle 3G(NODE Bs) planned in Ph VII+ 2G BTS Planned in Ph-VII+
1 ANADAMAN NICOBAR 60 67
2 ANDHRA PRADESH 1460 660
3 ASSAM 330 270
4 BIHAR 821 821
5 CHENNAI TD 371 251
6 HARYANA 530 383
7 HIMACHAL PRADESH 276 153
8 JAMMU & KASHMIR 176 176
9 JHARKHAND 185 185
10 KARNATAKA 1600 830
11 KERALA 1950 638
12 KOLKATA 1000 1000
13 NORTH EAST-I 227 268
14 NORTH EAST-II 59 59
15 ODISHA 618 570
16 PUNJAB 370 337
17 RAJASTHAN 428 428
18 TAMILNADU 1461 600
19 UTTAR PRADESH(EAST) 710 625
20 UTTAR PRADESH(WEST) 305 330
21 UTTARAKHAND 256 154
22 WEST BENGAL 75 200
Total 13268 9038
* Andhra Pradesh includes Telangana area also.
</pre>
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