Six Indian states corner 50% of 281k BTS installed so far

As many as 281,000 5G radios or base transceiver stations (BTS) have been put up nationwide till 7 July, data submitted by the Department of Telecommunications to Lok Sabha on Wednesday showed.

Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and West Bengal have seen the highest number of installations so far. These states cumulatively make up nearly 50 per cent of all BTS installed.

A BTS is a fixed radio transceiver in any mobile network, most often in the form of a tower. However, often new 5G radios are also put up on existing tower infrastructure.

Data also showed Vodafone Idea (Vi) has put up 36 BTS in Pune and Delhi, as part of the company’s testing of 5G infra. The company is yet to commercially launch 5G services and has not given a date for a possible launch.

The two telecom companies currently racing for 5G domination, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, are putting up 5G BTS at a fast clip in cities across the country.

Currently, 5G is being introduced in India on two different technological platforms. In the Standalone (SA) mode, the network is built particularly for 5G, while in the Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, the 5G network is built as a top-up on an existing layer of the 4G radio network.

While Reliance Jio has launched its 5G network on the SA mode, Bharti Airtel has opted for NSA. As a result, industry experts have pointed out that Reliance Jio would need to install more BTS than Bharti Airtel. Case in point, Reliance Jio had more than 4-times higher the number of 5G radios, according to official statistics.

Reliance Jio had rolled out 5G in more than 6,258 cities with 228,689 5G BTS. Meanwhile, rival Airtel announced in May that it had crossed 3,500 cities. It currently has 53,223 5G BTS installed. Business Standard