The Department of Telecom (DoT) said in an official reply in the Parliament that it has been almost 6 months since the 5G service started and the infrastructure has been established in 481 districts nationwide. Currently only 37 percent or 8.84 lakh of the total 23.8 lakh Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in India have been fiberised.
BTS is a fixed radio transceiver in a mobile network. It is mainly in the form of a tower. However, new 5G radios are being fitted on existing tower infrastructure. They are used to facilitate the communication process between subscriber devices and telecom operator networks.
Officials say that the geographical coverage of 5G is increasing rapidly, as till a month ago the number of districts covered by 5G was 387.
However, lack of fiber backhaul in telecom towers is a major problem for this sector. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, the two telecom service providers currently offering 5G in India, have said that once the optical fiber line is fully laid, the network speed and capacity will also increase.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) says that at least 70 per cent of towers should have fiber connectivity for potential 5G services.
