Lok Sabha Question No. 2957 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-11
Subject: Mobile Towers in Madhya Pradesh
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Krishna Pal Singh Yadav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2957 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH  MARCH, 2020

## MOBILE TOWERS IN MADHYA PRADESH

## †2957. DR. KRISHNA PAL SINGH YADAV:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  mobile  users  are  not  getting  proper  mobile  network  connectivity  due  to insufficient number of mobile towers in Guna, Shivpuri and Ashok Nagar districts of Madhya Pradesh;
- (b) the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (c) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  install  adequate  and  required  number  of  mobile towers in the said districts?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a) to (c) Telecom  Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)  has been monitoring the performance of Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) against the benchmarks for various Quality of Service parameters laid  down by  TRAI by way of Quality of Service regulations issued from time to time, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs). The performance is assessed  for  a  License  Service  Area  (LSA)  as  a  whole.    Hence,  no  separate  information  for districts is available in TRAI.

As  per  PMR  for  the  quarter  ending  December  2019  for  Cellular  Mobile  Telephone Services, all TSPs are largely complying with benchmarks for all the network related parameters in Madhya Pradesh Service area. Therefore, the services in the Madhya Pradesh service area is not poor due to insufficient number of mobile towers.

Further, as per data collected from Department of Telecommunications (DoT) field units as on 31.12.2019, 19 villages out of 1264 inhabited villages in Guna district, 40 villages out of 1305 inhabited  villages  in  Shivpuri  district  and  15 villages  out  of  818  inhabited  villages  in  Ashok Nagar district in Madhya Pradesh are not covered by mobile services. Mobile coverage in the uncovered villages in the country is being provided by the Government and TSPs in a phased manner. As on 05.03.2020, number of mobile towers in Guna, Shivpuri & Ashok Nagar districts in Madhya Pradesh are 612, 724 & 376 respectively and number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs)  for  these  districts  are  1943,  2244  &  1089  respectively.  Further,  new  Mobile  Towers/

BTSs are installed  by  TSPs  on  continuous  basis  to  improve  coverage  and/or  capacity  of  their networks based on their techno-commercial requirements.

Moreover, Aspirational District Scheme for provisioning of 4G based mobile services in 502  uncovered  villages  in  Aspirational  Districts  of  four  states  Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan which include 205 uncovered villages of Madhya Pradesh State has been approved. Guna is one of such Aspirational Districts in the State of Madhya Pradesh.

The Government has also taken several policy initiatives to facilitate infrastructure growth in  the  country  which  include  permitting  trading/sharing/  liberalisation  of  spectrum,  permitting passive  &  active  infrastructure  sharing,  notification  of  Right  of  Way  Rules  2016,  making available government land/buildings for installations of towers etc.

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