Lok Sabha Question No. 940 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-02
Subject: Non-Operational Towers
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: A.T. (NANA) PATIL

## MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 940 TO BE ANSWERED ON 2 nd  MARCH,  2016 NON-OPERATIONAL TOWERS

†940. SHRI A.T. NANA PATIL:

Will  the  Minister  of  COMMUNICATIONS  AND  INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited  towers  have  been  installed  in  many parts of the country especially in the Jalgaon Parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra and almost most of them are lying defunct to which network problem is being faced;
- (b) if so, the steps being taken by the Government to see to these non-operational towers especially in Jalgaon district;
- (c) the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  BSNL  and  MTNL  more modern; and
- (d) the steps being taken by the Government to address the problem of call drop in the country?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) & (b) Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited  (BSNL)  has  installed  Base  Transceiver Stations  (BTSs)  in  the  country  including  Jalgaon  Secondary  Switching  Area  (SSA). BSNL has reported that no network problem is reported.  In Jalgaon SSA, 9 out of 252 BTSs are non-operational. These towers are located in remote areas.  There is frequent theft  problem  in  the  area  resulting  in  loss  of  RF  cable,  Battery  sets,  etc.    However, BSNL has allotted  72 Network Cards & 69 Battery Sets to Jalgaon SSA for carrying out repairs to the non-operational mobile towers.
- (c) So  far  as  modernisation  of  telecom  network  is  concerned,  BSNL  and  MTNL upgrade  and  augment  their  networks  on  techno-economical  considerations  on  a continuous basis.  BSNL and MTNL have taken several steps to for the modernisation of  their  telecom network and improving upon quality of service.  Some of these steps are as follows:

## BSNL

-  BSNL has planned to install 10510 of 3G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) & 14232 of 2G  BTSs  under  Phase-VII GSM  (  Global System  for Mobile communication)  expansion  for  15  Million  lines.    It  has  also  planned  to  install additional 9600 of 3G BTSs and replacing of 5300 old BTSs of GSM Phase I, II & III  in North & South Zone. An approximate capacity of 5 million shall be added in the GSM network of North Zone & South Zone. BSNL has already commissioned over  16.42  million  lines.  Out  of  the  planned  BTSs,  9829  (3G)  BTSs  &  12,491 (2G)  BTSs  are  radiating  (Total  22,320).  This  will  improve  2G  &  3G  network coverage & data capability of 3G network.
-  BSNL has planned to implement ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) as one of the important IT initiative in two phases i.e. Phase-I Proof of Concept (POC) and Phase-2 Rollout. The ERP has been implemented in all the  49 units  including eight Proof of Concept (POC) Circles .
-  During this Five Year Plan (2012-17), BSNL has planned to make the entire wire line  customer  base  network  IP  enabled.  Next  Generation  Network  (NGN) equipment based on the latest architecture are planned to be deployed gradually to replace the entire Circuit Switched equipments/ Digital Telephone Exchanges.

-  BSNL has set wireline call centres for the customers of landline and broadband at Dehradun, Ajmer and Bangalore and traffic from all  circles has been migrated to these call centres. These call centres are accessible through toll free number 1500 (from BSNL number) and 18003451500 (from other operator numbers).
-  BSNL has launched various customer centric initiatives like Night free calling, Free Roaming, increased minimum speed of broadband to 2 Mbps etc.

## MTNL

-  MTNL has planned to upgrade the existing High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) 3G network supporting Downlink speed of 3.6 Mbps & Uplink speed of 384 Kbps to HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access +) with Downlink speed of 21.1 Mbps & Uplink speed of 5.76 Mbps per sector.
-  MTNL  is  taking  steps  for  up-gradation  /  augmentation  /  expansion  of  existing 2G/3G network.
-  MTNL is planning to provide the backhaul media connectivity of existing mobile tower sites in Delhi & Mumbai on OFC network in place of Microwave network.
-  MTNL is also exploring synergy with BSNL for its mobile services amongst other initiatives.
-  MTNL has set up wireline call  centers for  the  customers  of  landline,  mobile  & broadband at Delhi and Mumbai. These call centers are accessible through Toll Free numbers 1500/1503/1504 (from MTNL numbers). These call centres handle all types of inbound queries, directory enquiries, complaints, requests, outbound calling  and  response  through  SMS  (Short  Message  service)/e-mail/fax/web portal.

(d) Department  of  Telecommunications  (DoT),  Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of India  (TRAI)  and  the  Telecom  Service  Providers  (TSPs)  have  taken  several  steps  to address the problem of call drop in the country. Some of these steps are as follows:

-  DoT  communicated  to  Ministry  of  Urban  Development  (MoUD)  and  various state  Governments  citing  'Digital  India'  and  'm-governance'  programs  for providing single window clearances, space in government buildings for mobile sites, speedy right of Way (RoW) clearances and ensuring 24x7 power.
-  Secretary (T) held a meeting with Secretary, MoUD on 22 nd July, 2015 and the follow-up communications, the latest one on 17 th February, 2016 to facilitate the use  of  Government  land  &  buildings  for  installation  of  additional  tower-sites (around  100  sites)  in  Delhi  Area.    Each  of  these  sites  may  be  shared  by multiple Telecom Service Providers.
-  Permission  granted  by  the  DoT  for  active  infrastructure  sharing  spectrum sharing and trading.
-  19363  of  2G and 44,450 of 3G additional sites have been installed in the last six months
-  Network optimization have been also under taken by TSPs.
-  TRAI's  Independent  Drive  Tests  (IDT)  by  Independent  Agencies  in  several cities  of  India  on  periodic basis, the latest one conducted in December 2015January 2016 for 7 major cities.
-  Weekly monitoring of status of bad (radio) cells.
-  Awareness Campaign by DoT and TRAI to dispel the fear of potential harmful effect  of  EMF  (Electro Magnetic Field) radiations amongst general public and mobile users.

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