Telcos invested Rs 1.34 lakh cr in FY'15

NEW DELHI: The telecom sector has invested Rs 1,34,000 crore towards development of networks and for spectrum in the last financial year.

Telecom operators, who recently addressed a press conference jointly, are of the view that despite huge investments call drops are happening because of insufficient towers and lack of support from the government.

They also said that they invest 73% of their revenues as compared to 13% by their global peers.

The telcos have committed Rs 110,000 crore for airwaves and spent another Rs 24,000 crores in network equipment in 2014-15 fiscal and during the course of last two decades, telcos have put together Rs 750,000 crore in the sector.

"Despite world's lowest voice and data tariff in India, the telecom industry was able to made huge investments in the last 20 years and the overall sector contributes 3.5% to the country's GDP and facilitates 7.3 lakh direct jobs," Himanshu Kapania, Chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said.

As per industry data, between January to July 2015, telecom operators have invested in 70,751 new cell sites that include 31,197 2G, 29,880 3G and 9, 674 4G installations.

"Telecom has infrastructure status and is deemed as essential services, but unfortunately the industry doesn't see benefits while the sector will require at least 100,000 new tower sites by 2017," said Kapania, who is also the CEO of Idea Cellular.

The telcos also said that about Rs 750,000 crores were invested in the last 20 years to provide seamless connectivity to over 950 million mobile users. Over Rs 1,09,000 crores have been committed in the spectrum auction held in March 2015 itself. In 2014-15 alone, the industry committed the investment has ensured improvement in network coverage and capacity enhancement.

The industry has pitched in for uniform policy on towers and more support from the government to fix the problem of call drops.

Support Required

• Implementation of DoT guidelines for installation of Cell-sites across all states

• The guidelines should be statutorily backed

• Single-window, time-bound clearance for installation of cell-sites

• 24/7 Power to the cell-sites

• Installation of Cell-sites and in building solution (IBS) on government buildings

• Installation of Cell-sites on Defense land

• Right of Way for fibre

• Spectrum harmonization and availability of increased quantum.