Telecom sector reaches five lakh mobile tower mark with 10.44 lakh cr investment All telcos, except Jio, fail in Trai's call drop test on highway,railways routes

NEW DELHI: Telecom companies have completed installation of 5 lakh mobile towers in the country till date with a total investment of Rs 10.44 lakh crore, industry body COAI said Thursday.

"Coai...congratulated the telecom industry on the landmark achievement of installing 5 lakh mobile towers, taking the total BTS count to over 20 Lakh," the industry body said in a statement.

A mobile tower can house several base stations (BTS) of different telecom service providers.

"The telecom industry has been closely working with the government in building a well-entrenched communication infrastructure and till date, the industry has invested INR 10.44 lakh crore to this end," the statement said.

According to the data shared by the industry body, the sharp growth in expansion of mobile tower was fuelled by 4G BTSS.

The data also showed that Maharashtra has the maximum number of BTS units (1,63,773) followed by Andhra Pradesh at the second position with 1,49,901 BTSS and Karnataka coming a close third with 1,41,353 BTSS.

"With the commercial deployment of 5G expected by early 2020, everything will pivot on better connectivity, both in terms of quality and speed. For this to happen seamlessly, robust telecom infrastructure is a must, COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said. NEW DELHI: All telecom operators, except Reliance Jio, failed to meet call drop benchmark in drive test conducted by sector regulator Trai on different highway and rail routes, a report published on Thursday said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said that independent drive tests through its appointed agency was conducted on eight highways and three rail routes.

Either 3G or 2G network of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and state-run BSNL failed to meet call drop benchmark on four highway routes and all the three railway routes.

Reliance Jio name did not appear among companies that failed to meet call drop criteria on both the highway and rail routes.

The highways between Asansol to Gaya, Digha to Asansol, Gaya to Danapur, Bengaluru to Murdeshwar, Raipur to Jagdalpur, Dehradun to Nainital, Mount Abu to Jaipur and Sri Nagar to Leh were covered in the test. Railway routes between Allahabad to Gorakhpur, Delhi to Mumbai and Jabalpur to Singrauli were covered.