NSIM

Call Drop:Telcos commit Rs 20K cr for towers,seek new spectrum

New Delhi, Jul 25th 2016 (PTI)

Grappling with mobile call drop menace, telecom operators today committed to install 1 lakh towers within a year, entailing investments of about Rs 20,000 crore, and sought more spectrum from the government.

"Telecom operators have installed 48,000 towers in last 45 days, out of 60,000 towers they promised to install in 100 days," Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha told reporters after a meeting with them.

"They have committed to one-year plan. Their performance has been satisfactory but government wants that improvement in networks should be experienced by consumers," he added.

This was second meeting between the government and the operators on the call drop issue. At the first meeting with Telecom Secretary JS Deepak in June, a 100-day plan was chalked out.

A telecom ministry official said the operators have committed to install a total of 1 lakh mobile towers within a year. The cost of each mobile tower is estimated to be around Rs 20 lakh.

"The customer experience should not only be in area of call drop but also in space of data services. We are not anywhere close to experience required for success of Digital India initiative of the Prime Minister," Sinha said.

The government is gearing up for the largest spectrum auction, estimated to be worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore, wherein as much as 2300 megahertz of radiowaves will be put up for sale across frequency bands.

Telecom operators have also sought the opening up of new frequency bands -- 71-76 gigahertz (GHz) and 50 GHz. Wireless services deployed in these bands are considered to deliver broadband speed of up to 1 gigabit per second as in case of optical fibres.

Sinha told the operators that spectrum auction will be conducted in September and it will resolve spectrum shortage problem in the industry. 

inha told the operators that spectrum auction will be conducted in September and it will resolve spectrum shortage problem in the industry. Sinha said the government is studying a proposal of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that aims at strengthening present consumer grievance redressal system and giving more powers to the regulator.

"The focus of the meeting was success of Digital India. We have committed to install 1 lakh base stations in a year. We have asked for E (71-76 Ghz) & V (50 Ghz) band to support back-haul network. Getting right of way permission for laying optical fibre is difficult so these bands can help," industry body COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

Government is working on uniform rule across country regarding permits and fee charged for laying optical fibre network.

The industry has asked government to reduce interest rates being charged on instalments paid of buying spectrum and tie it as per rates decided by RBI. "If government wants to incentivise  and push broadband roll out, we have asked to lower interest rate on payments to be made for spectrum.

In fact, it should be lower than retail rate as payments are huge. Government should apply new rate on all instalments prospectively and even on those that are due to for previous auctions," Mathews said.

Representatives of all telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel chief for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, Vodafone India head Sunil Sood, Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania, Reliance Jio Infocomm MD Sanjay Mashruwala, Telenor CEO Sharad Mehrotra, were present in the meeting.

"The focus of the meeting was success of Digital India. We have committed to install 1 lakh base stations in a year. We have asked for E (71-76 Ghz) & V (50 Ghz) band to support back-haul network. Getting right of way permission for laying optical fibre is difficult so these bands can help," industry body COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

Government is working on uniform rule across country regarding permits and fee charged for laying optical fibre network.

The industry has asked government to reduce interest rates being charged on instalments paid of buying spectrum and tie it as per rates decided by RBI. "If government wants to incentivise  and push broadband roll out, we have asked to lower interest rate on payments to be made for spectrum.

In fact, it should be lower than retail rate as payments are huge. Government should apply new rate on all instalments prospectively and even on those that are due to for previous auctions," Mathews said.

Representatives of all telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel chief for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal, Vodafone India head Sunil Sood, Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania, Reliance Jio Infocomm MD Sanjay Mashruwala, Telenor CEO Sharad Mehrotra, were present in the meeting.