Lok Sabha Question No. 1471 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Telecom Facility in Marathwada Region
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Sanjay Haribhau Jadhav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1471 TO BE ANSWERED ON 27 TH   NOVEMBER, 2019

## TELECOM FACILITY IN MARATHWADA REGION

## †1471. SHRI SANJAY JADHAV:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether telecommunication system in Marathwada region in Maharashtra is operating smoothly and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b) the decrease in the number of BSNL customers in the aforesaid region during the last three years along with the reasons therefor; and
- (c) whether there is shortage of telecommunication towers across the country and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  has  been  monitoring  the  performance  of  service providers  against  the  benchmark  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) submitted by service providers for the service area as a whole.

As per PMR for the quarter ending September 2019, for Cellular Mobile Telephone Services, all the service providers are largely complying with benchmarks for all the parameters in Maharashtra Service area except for the parameter 'Percentage  of calls answered by the  operators (voice to  voice)  within 90 seconds (benchmark ≥  95%)'  not met by M/s Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Total  number  of  Base  Transceiver  Station  (BTS)  working  in  Marathwada  region  on  21.11.2019 are 27,492 (Airtel- 4117 Nos., BSNL-2155 Nos., RJIO -11278 Nos., TTML - 38 Nos. and VIL - 9904 Nos.) As reported  by  field  units,  telecommunication  systems  in  Marathwada  region  in  Maharashtra  is  operating smoothly.

(b) The  decrease  in  number  of  landline  customers  of  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  limited  (BSNL)  in  the aforesaid region during the last 3 years is due to high penetration of mobile service over landline. Details of landline connections and mobile connections of BSNL in Marathwada region during the last 3 years are given in Annexure-I .

(c) Mobile  towers  and  BTS  are  installed  by  Telecom  Service  Providers/ Infrastructure  Providers (TSPs)/IPs  to  improve  coverage  and/or  capacity  of  their  networks  based  on  their  techno-commercial requirements  on  continuous  basis.  The  Government    has  taken  several  policy  initiatives  to  facilitate infrastructure growth for delivery of quality services. These 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.  Around  15.53  lakh  additional Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) for 2G/3G/4G-LTE services have been added by TSPs during the period from April 2014 (6.49 lakh BTS) to 14 th November 2019 (22.03 lakh BTS) . Further, about 1.64 lakh mobile towers  have  been  added  during  the  period  from  Dec'  2015  (4.15  lakh)  to  14 th November 2019 (5.79 lakh mobile towers) across the country.

## Annexure-I

Annexure referred to in reply of para (b) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1471 to be answered on 27th  November,  2019  raised  by  Hon'ble  Members  of  Parliament  Shri  Sanjay  Jadhav  regarding 'Telecom Facility In Marathwada Region'

|   S.No. | Number of BSNL subscribers in Marathwada region in Maharashtra   | March'17   | March'18   | March'19   |
|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|------------|------------|
|       1 | Number of landline subscribers                                   | 1,18,954   | 1,02,905   | 86,851     |
|       2 | Number of mobile subscribers                                     | 11,21,433  | 12,00,883  | 11,62,027  |

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