Lok Sabha Question No. 164 (STARRED), answered on 2018-03-07
Subject: Telecommunication Services
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Richard Hay, George Baker

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 164 TO BE ANSWERED ON 7 th  MARCH, 2018

## TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES

- *164.   PROF. RICHARD HAY: SHRI GEORGE BAKER:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  of  the  fact  that  various  telecommunication services  including  mobile  and  internet  facilities  are  not  satisfactory  in  rural,  hilly/remote  and tribal areas of the country;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  along  with  the  number  of  such  areas  with  poor  telecom services/connectivity,  State/UT-wise  including  Kerala, West  Bengal  and  Maharashtra  and  the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  improve  such  services  and  the achievements made so far in this regard along with the funds sanctioned, allocated and utilized for the purpose during each of the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise;
- (d) whether the Government has signed or is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with any entity in this regard and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the Government is planning to approve a modified strategy to remedy the aforesaid situation in these areas and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) to (e) A statement is laid on the table of the House.

STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PART (a) to (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *164  FOR  7 TH MARCH,  2018  ON 'TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES'.

(a) to (b) The Quality of Services benchmarks for telecommunication services are notified by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) under TRAI Act, 1997 at the level of License Service Area (LSA) as a whole. These LSAs cover all States and Union Territories of India. For mobile services, the network related key benchmarks include:

- i. 'Base  Transceiver  Stations  (BTS)  Accumulated  downtime'  (not  available  for  service) which measures the downtime of the BTS including its transmission links/ circuits during the  period  of  a  month  but  excludes  all  planned  service  downtime  for  any  maintenance, (benchmark ≤ 2%).
- ii. 'Call Set-up Success Rate (within Licensee's own network)' is ratio of established calls to call attempts in TSP's network, (benchmark ≥95%).
- iii. 'Traffic  Channel  (TCH)  Congestion'  is  a  measure  of  congestion  in  the  network's  Traffic Channel(s) which carry user's speech or data, (benchmark ≤2%).
- iv. 'Call  Drop  Rate'  is  a  measure  of  reliability  of  network  for  maintaining  a  call  once  it  has been correctly established, (benchmark≤2%).
- v. 'Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel (TCH) call drop rate' are those cells in which call drop rate exceeds 3% during any particular hour of the day. The number of such cells is required to be less than 3 % of the Cells in LSA, (benchmark ≤3%).

As per TRAI's Performance Monitoring Report for the quarter ending in September 2017, it is observed that most of TSPs comply to TRAI's benchmarks in majority of LSAs.

The non-compliant Telecommunication Service Providers (TSPs) are mainly M/s Aircel, M/s TTSL, and M/s Telenor. (Details in Annexure-I .) M/s Aircel in Kerala LSA and M/s Telenor in Maharashtra LSA for 2G services and M/s Aircel & BSNL in West Bengal LSA for both 2G & 3G services, do not meet the performance parameter, 'Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel (TCH) call drop rate'.

There has been significant improvement observed in terms of compliance to these TRAI benchmarks over the last two years,  as reported  by  TRAI  on quarterly  basis. This  has  been facilitated  by  concerted  efforts  made  by  the  Government  at  policy-level  and  augmentation  of telecom  infrastructure  by  TSPs.  As  a  result,  about  6.66  lakh  additional  2G/3G/4G  BTS  have been  installed  by  TSPs  in  the  country  during  the  period  July  2015  to  February  2018. Additionally, about 6.67 lakh 2G/3G BTS-Cells have been rectified by TSPs during the period July 2016 to December 2017.

(c) to (e) The Government is making all efforts to provide affordable tele-connectivity to all habitated  areas  of  the  country  and  has  also  been  working  on  dedicated  programs  through Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) to provide tele-connectivity in rural areas, hilly or remote or tribal locations including islands in the territory of India as detailed below.

- (i) Bharat-Net  plans  to  connect  all  the  2,50,000  Gram  Panchayats  in  the  country  for providing  broadband  connectivity  in  the  Gram  Panchayats.  With  the  completion  of Phase-I,  about 2.61 lakh kilometers of Optical Fiber Cable has been laid to connect 1,11,257  Gram  Panchayats  (GPs)  of  which  1,02,414  GPs  are  service-ready.  This infrastructure  is  available  to  all  TSPs  on  non-discriminatory  basis  for  providing  local access at rural-level.

Phase-I works have been executed by M/s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), M/s RailTel and M/s Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL). Efforts are already on-going  for  Phase-II  which  plans  to  extend  connecting  infrastructure  to  all  250,000 GPs by March 2019 by involvement of States, private sector, and Central Public Sector Units  (CPSUs).  MOUs  with  08  States  namely,  Maharashtra,  Gujarat,  Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Odisha have already been signed.

- (ii) Scheme for  Mobile  Communication  Services  in  Left Wing  Extremism  (LWE)  affected Areas in 10 States namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Phase-I  of  the  scheme  has  been  executed  by  M/s  BSNL.    As  on  date,  2329  mobile towers out of 2355 planned towers are radiating.

Telecom  Commission  has  considered  and  recommended  the  proposal  of installing 4072 mobile towers at locations identified by MHA in LWE affected area with a viability  gap  funding  of  Rs.  7330  crores  from  USOF  on  21  December  2017  which  is being put up for consideration of the Cabinet.

- (iii) In order to provide internet services in rural areas, BSNL is also setting up Public Wi-Fi hotspots  at  25,000  Telephone  Exchanges  in  rural  areas  of  the  country.  As  on 23.02.2018, Wi-Fi hotspots have been set-up / installed in 2306 and service delivery commenced in 2138 exchanges. Remaining shall be installed progressively.
- (iv) Further,  Common  Service  Centre-  Special  Purpose  Vehicle  (CSC-SPV),  under  the Ministry  of  Electronics  &  IT,  is  also  setting  up  'Wi-Fi  Choupals'  in  5,000  GPs  of  the country  by  using  BharatNet  infrastructure,  5145  'Wi-Fi  Choupals'  have  been  setup /installed and service delivery has commenced in 1833 GPs as on 31.12.2017.

Besides, Universal Service Obligation Fund  (USOF)  is  facilitating region-specific programs to extend tele-connectivity as detailed under:

## (i) North East Region:

Providing  coverage  to  8621  villages  is  included  as  part  of  Comprehensive  Telecom Development Plan for North Eastern Region. Further, Optical Fibre Network in North Eastern Region is also under-augmentation in which 319 nodes out of 323 planned in Assam have been already  commissioned  by  31.12.2017.  Similarly,  188  nodes  in  the  States  of  Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have been planned of which 123 have been commissioned by 31.12.2017. Further, out of 407 nodes planned in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, 92 nodes have been commissioned by 31.12.2017.

M/s Bharti Airtel has been entrusted to set up over 2004 mobile towers to connect about 2128  villages  in  Manipur,  Mizoram,  Nagaland,  Sikkim,  Tripura,  parts  of  Assam  and  National Highways  in  North-Eastern  States.  Besides,  M/s  BSNL  has  been  assigned  to  install  2,817 mobile towers to provide coverage in 4,119 uncovered villages.

## (ii) Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Andaman & Nicobar Islands, includes submarine  optical  fiber  connectivity  program  which  targets  to  connect  mainland  of  India (Chennai)  to  Andaman  &  Nicobar  Islands  by  December  2018.  Moreover,  satellite-based connectivity is targetted for bandwidth augmentation by December 2018. Proposal of setting-up 172 towers to provide 2G + 4G coverage in 172 uncoverd villages and 42 towers for coverage of entire 129 kilometers NH 223 including 80 kilometer falling within Jarawa Tribal Reserve belt.

## (iii) Lakshadweep Islands

A  similar  plan  on  the  lines  of  Andaman  &  Nicobar  Islands  has  been  developed  for improved connectivity in Lakshadweep Islands which includes laying of submarine optical cable between  Kochi  to  Lakshadweep  Islands,  augmentation  of  satellite  bandwidth  and  extended mobile coverage. 10 new BTS will be set-up to improve Quality of Services for which work has been  awarded  to  M/s  BSNL  and  likely  to  be  completed  by  March  2018.  Under  BharatNet project, 69 GPs are planned to be connected.

The status of disbursement of subsidy under USOF Schemes is tabulated below:

(Rupees in Crore)

| Sl. No.   | Activity                                                                | Subsidy Disbursed   | Subsidy Disbursed   | Subsidy Disbursed   | Subsidy Disbursed   |
|-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
| Sl. No.   | Activity                                                                | 2014-15             | 2015-16             | 2016-17             | 2017-18 as on date  |
| 1.        | Shri Amarnath Yatra                                                     | 0                   | 0                   | 0                   | 6.91                |
| 2.        | BharatNet (previously NOFN)                                             | 1351.86             | 2415.10             | 5600.00             | 4350.00             |
| 3         | Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas                                      | 596.51              | 617.05              | 280.68              | 446.84              |
| 4.        | Setting up of 25000 public Wi-Fi hotspots at rural block exchanges      | 0                   | 0                   | 0                   | 187.50              |
| 5.        | 'Wi-Fi Choupal' at 5,000 Gram Panchayats by CSC                         | 0                   | 0                   | 35.70               | 68.16               |
| 6.        | Augmentation of Satellite Bandwidth in A&N Islands                      | 0                   | 8.10                | 0                   | 0                   |
| 7.        | Augmentation of Satellite Bandwidth in Lakshadweep                      | 0                   | 0                   | 4.65                | 0                   |
| 8.        | Replacement of MARR VPTs - after 1.7.2003                               | -0.48               | 0.03                | 0                   | 0                   |
| 9.        | Replacement of MARR VPTs - between 1.4.02 to 30.06.03                   | -0.04               | 0                   | 0                   | 0                   |
| 10.       | Shared Mobile Infrastructure Scheme                                     | 9.97                | 3.21                | 0.24                | 0                   |
| 11.       | Sanchar Shakti Scheme                                                   | 0.35                | 0.29                | 0                   | 0                   |
| 12.       | VPTs in Uncovered villages                                              |                     | 0                   | 0                   | 0                   |
| 13.       | VPT in Newly Identified Uncovered inhabited Villages as per Census 2001 | 6.35                | 2.78                | 4.23                | 1.31                |

| 14.   | OFC infrastructure in Assam                                                                                            | 31.40   |    0.00 |       0 |       0 |
|-------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|---------|---------|---------|
| 15.   | OFC NE-I                                                                                                               |         |    3.95 |   14.48 |    0    |
| 16.   | OFC NE-II                                                                                                              |         |    0    |   13.04 |    0    |
| 17.   | Provision of Rural Community Phone                                                                                     |         |    0    |    0    |    0    |
| 18.   | RDELs provided from 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007                                                                           | 0.26    |    0.83 |    0    |    0    |
| 19.   | RDELs installed between 01.04.2002 to 31.03.2005                                                                       |         |    0    |    0    |    0    |
| 20.   | Operational Subsidy for wire-line RDELs as difference between regulated rental and actual rental (1.4.02 to 31.1.2004) |         |    0    |    0    |    0    |
| 21.   | Operational Subsidy for wire-line RDELs in lieu of phased out ADC                                                      |         |    0    | 1250    |    0    |
| 22.   | RDELs provided after 31.03.2007                                                                                        | 10.04   |   -0.3  |    2.53 |    0    |
| 23.   | Solar PV based mobile phone charging facility                                                                          | 0.68    |    0.3  |    0.4  |    0    |
| 24.   | Operation & Maintenance of VPTs                                                                                        | -0.47   |    0    |    0    |    0    |
| 25.   | Rural wire-line broadband scheme                                                                                       | 80.54   |   48.66 |   21.09 |   10.6  |
|       | Grand Total                                                                                                            | 2086.98 | 3100    | 7227.03 | 3721.89 |

The status of non-compliances observed at TSP-level, as per TRAI Report for quarter ending September 2017, in respective LSAs is given below:

Table A: For 2G services

| Sr   |                      | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                 | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                    | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks   | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks   | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                                   |
|------|----------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Sr   | License Service Area | BTS Accumulated downtime (not available for services) | Call Set-up Success Rate (within licensee's own network) | Traffic Channel Congestion              | Call Drop Rate                          | Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel call drop rate |
|      | Benchmark(s)         | ≤ 2%                                                  | ≥ 95%                                                    | ≤ 2%                                    | ≤ 2%                                    | ≤ 3%                                                                    |
| 1    | Andhra Pradesh       |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 2    | Assam                |                                                       | Aircel                                                   | Aircel                                  |                                         | Aircel,                                                                 |
| 3    | Bihar                |                                                       |                                                          | Aircel                                  |                                         | Aircel Telenor, TTSL                                                    |
| 4    | Chennai              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 5    | Delhi                |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 6    | Gujarat              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 7    | Himachal Pradesh     |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 8    | Haryana              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 9    | Jammu & Kashmir      |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 10   | Karnataka            |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 11   | Kolkata              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 12   | Kerala               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 13   | Mumbai               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 14   | Maharashtra          |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Telenor                                                                 |
| 15   | Madhya Pradesh       |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Vodafone                                                                |
| 16   | North-East           | Aircel                                                |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 17   | Odisha               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 18   | Punjab               |                                                       | TTSL                                                     | TTSL                                    |                                         | TTSL                                                                    |
| 19   | Rajasthan            |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel, TTSL                                                            |
| 20   | Tamil Nadu           |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 21   | Uttar Pradesh (East) |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Telenor                                                                 |
| 22   | Uttar Pradesh(West)  |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 23   | West Bengal          |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel, BSNL                                                            |

## Table B: For 3G services

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| Sr   |                      | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                 | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                    | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks   | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks   | TSPs not complying to TRAI benchmarks                                   |
|------|----------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Sr   | License Service Area | BTS Accumulated downtime (not available for services) | Call Set-up Success Rate (within licensee's own network) | Traffic Channel Congestion              | Call Drop Rate                          | Worst affected cells having more than 3% Traffic Channel call drop rate |
|      | Benchmark(s)         | ≤ 2%                                                  | ≥ 95%                                                    | ≤ 2%                                    | ≤ 2%                                    | ≤ 3%                                                                    |
| 1    | Andhra Pradesh       |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 2    | Assam                | Aircel                                                |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 3    | Bihar                |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 4    | Chennai              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 5    | Delhi                |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | RCom                                                                    |
| 6    | Gujarat              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 7    | Himachal Pradesh     |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 8    | Haryana              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 9    | Jammu & Kashmir      |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 10   | Karnataka            |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 11   | Kolkata              |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 12   | Kerala               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 13   | Mumbai               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 14   | Maharashtra          |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 15   | Madhya Pradesh       |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 16   | North-East           | Aircel                                                |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 17   | Odisha               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 18   | Punjab               |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 19   | Rajasthan            |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 20   | Tamil Nadu           |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel                                                                  |
| 21   | Uttar Pradesh (East) |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 22   | Uttar Pradesh(West)  |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         |                                                                         |
| 23   | West Bengal          |                                                       |                                                          |                                         |                                         | Aircel, BSNL                                                            |

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