Chandrasekhar Bobade, Loksatta
Nagpur: Although the country is moving towards a second telecommunications revolution through 5G, we are lagging behind in the necessary preparations for it. Out of the total 23 lakh 7 thousand 68 mobile towers in the country, only 7 lakh 93 thousand 551 (34.4 per cent) towers have been connected by ‘fiber optics’ as of February 2022. Maharashtra, which has the second highest number of towers of the country, has 34.2 percent.
Mobile towers must be connected with fiber optics to improve the quality of mobile service and speed up Internet service. 5G will be launched in the near future. In this context, the work of connecting mobile towers to fiber optics was only 34.4 percent completed in the country. According to the Union Department of Telecommunications, out of a total of 23 lakh 7 thousand 68 mobile towers in the country, only 7 lakh 93 thousand 551 (34.4 per cent) towers were connected by ‘fiber optics’ as of February 2022. There are a total of 2,40,951 mobile towers in Maharashtra. Of which 82,513 (34.2 percent) mobile towers were connected with fiber optics. Uttar Pradesh has the most towers in the country at 30 percent. There are 9 states in the country with more than a lakh of towers and even there the connection work is between 30 and 36 percent on average.
Telecommunications service providers must consider the network capacity, business foundation, and technical aspects of connecting towers with fiber cable. According to the tower construction companies, the regulations of the central, state and local autonomous bodies are often an obstacle in this task.
Earlier mobile towers were connected by cables with copper wire. That would be the exchange of conversations. But then came the Internet revolution. The use of ‘data’ has increased tremendously. For this, the towers need to be connected with fiber optics. The current ratio of 34% is very low in the context of 5G. The lack of uniformity in politics at the central, state and local levels is the main reason behind this.
– nitin ronghe, telecommunications professional, Nagpur.
Status of major states
State tower connection percentage
Uttar Pradesh 2,89,326 89,058 30.8
Maharashtra 2,40,951 82,513 34.2
Tamil Nadu 1,58,631 62,624 39.5
Karnataka 1,47,420 52,084 35.3
Gujarat 1,40,066 50,177 35.8
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