Chennai: With telcos working on increasing their infrastructure for the impending 5G services, countering losses and fierce competition, they might need to invest around Rs 1 lakh crore on optical fibre network, an analyst firm said.
Indian telecom companies may need to invest the said amount in the next two to three years to support 5G services, market research and analyst firm Crisil said.
“5G technology dictates fiberisation levels of over 70 per cent, versus 25-30 per cent levels at present. Crisil estimates that if each player were to reach this level individually, Indian telcos may need investments of up to around Rs 1 lakh crore only in laying fibre networks over the next two to three years,” it said.
According to the report, it is estimated that less than 10 per cent of mobile towers in the country are connected with optical fibre and, hence, cannot support high-speed data required for 5G services.
“Higher land cost and right of way approvals make fiberisation cost per kilometre as high as approximately Rs 1 crore per kilometer in metros,” the report said.
Crisil said fiberisation in the country will be expensive and hard for telecom companies as they are reeling under the cumulative debt of Rs 4.3 lakh crore.
Besides, the spectrum price recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is higher than the price discovered by leading countries such as South Korea and the United Kingdom.
“That is why India is set to witness some tectonic shifts in the fiberisation landscape and the birth of new business models among telcos and tower companies around the launch of 5G,” the report said.
BSNL has over eight lakh kilometres of optical fibre cables (OFC), followed by Reliance Jio with over three lakh kilometre of OFC, Bharti Airtel (about 2.5 lakh kilometre) and Vodafone Idea (1.6 lakh kilometre). BSNL OFC also includes the asset that it has laid under the BharatNet project.
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| The country’s telecom subscriber base grew marginally to 1,183.77 million in April on account of net mobile customers gain by Reliance Jio and State-run telecom firm BSNL, according to a Trai report released on Monday.
“The number of telephone subscribers in India slightly increased from 1,183.51 million at the end of March to 1,183.77 million at the end of April, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of 0.02 per cent,” Trai said in subscriber report for April. Wireless subscribers grew by about half a million to 1,162.30 million in April from 1,161.81 million in March. |
| Trai seeks views |
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The regulatory body in the consultation paper on ‘allotment of spectrum to Indian Railways for Public Safety and Security Services’ said that the Ministry of Railways has requested the DoT to reserve 15 MHz of spectrum in 700 MHz band for installing ultra-high speed 4G based communication network along railway routes. “Written comments on the issues raised in the consultation paper are invited from the stakeholders by July 22, 2019 and counter comments by August 5, 2019,” Trai said. |