In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Milind Deora, minister of state for communications and IT has stated that telecom operators are planning to establish 29,700 telecom towers for 3G services over the next two years, say news reports.
The operators aim to install 16,526 base transceiver stations (BTS), for 3G services in 2012-13. Further as many as 13,174 BTSs would be installed during 2013-14. Currently, the country has 96,212 BTSs supporting 3G services.
According to Deora, in 2012-2013, the operators plan to install 4,026 3G-enabled BTSs in Karnataka followed by Tamil Nadu (1,715) Bihar (1,703), Delhi (1,488), Mumbai (1,085) and Rajasthan (1,004) among others. In 2013-14 operators would be setting up 2,740 BTSs in the Delhi circle, followed by Andhra Pradesh (1,550) and Mumbai (1,399).
As of now, 3G services are available in 610 districts in the country. Currently, Tamil Nadu has the highest number of BTSs (9,350) supporting 3G services, followed by Delhi (8,405) and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) (8,377). As of November 30, 2012, Mumbai had 6,622 BTSs for 3G services.
In accordance with the current regulatory norms, telecom operators who won licences in the 2010 3G spectrum auction are required to provide street level coverage in at least 90 per cent of service areas in metros within the five years from the time they were allocated 3G spectrum.
For rest of the country, operators are required to cover 50 per cent of district headquarters within five years.
