While China, South Korea, Japan and United States are among the major countries racing to be the first to launch 5G telecom services, India, which has traditionally been a laggard in the telecom space, may be looking to close the yawning gap by rolling out the Next Gen services as early as in 2021, after their mega launch planned during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. The timing of the rollout is dependent on the auction of the spectrum in the 3500 mega hertz (MHz) band in the country. Trials are already on in various countries across the world, including in India. For a nationwide rollout of 5G network, the capacity of the current mobile telecom transmission network, which is currently 2.5 lakh towers strong, will have to take a three-fold leap. These indications were available during an interaction lifeinchandigarh.com had with senior officials of Indus Towers, the country’s biggest, and the world’s second largest telecom tower company, in Chandigarh on Wednesday.
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Earlier, in a news conference, officials presiding over the company’s operations in North India revealed that as part of its go green drive the company has been able to save 44 lakh litres of diesel last year in Punjab and Haryana circles alone by shutting down its diesel-powered gen sets (now being used only in case of emergencies) and doing away with use of air conditioners at most of its tower sites. This has been made possible with a significant improvement in the availability of electricity, and induction of more robust equipments, which can be installed in the open, and not necessarily in enclosed spaces, as was the case with earlier equipments requiring air conditioning to keep them cool.
Photo By : Life In Chandigarh
Gagan Kapoor, Circle CEO – Punjab & Haryana, Indus Towers Ltd, informed that out of the company’s portfolio of 8900 towers in the two states, covering 94,000 sq kms and customer base of seven crores, as many as 61 percent have been converted into green towers. The company’s vision is to have 100 percent diesel-free tower operations in the next 2-3 years. The company has already pumped in Rs 700 crore in expanding its tower network in the two states during the past five years, and plans to add another 600 more towers to its existing portfolio by 2019, he added.
Promoted under a joint venture between Bharti Infratel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Aditya Birla Telecom Ltd in 2007, Indus Towers Ltd today has presence in 15 telecom circles in India with a tower portfolio of 1,23,000-plus and has achieved 2.78,000-plus tenancies (number of antennae and other active infrastructure put up by tenants (telecom operators) on all towers), including of Airtel, Idea-Vodafone, Jio and BSNL.
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