Call drops to rise as civic bodies seal 566 towers

People in the Capital may face a rise in call drops and slow Internet as municipal corporations have sealed 566 mobile towers, industry body Tower and Infrastructure Providers’ Association (TAIPA) said on Tuesday.

There are 11,500 mobile towers in Delhi and 1,150 more are required for seamless coverage but are pending for want of permission, it said. TAIPA said in a statement that towers have been sealed “despite fee deposit of ₹48 crore lying with the municipal corporations”. It added that the move by the civic bodies will impact overall ease of doing business, development of a robust telecom infrastructure and growing data needs of customers.

‘Coercive action’

“...suo motu coercive action on sealing of mobile towers leads to solemn issues such as slow Internet speed, network congestion, call drops, etc. The overall regressive act impacts ease of doing business and forms a misconception that the industry is not making adequate investments,” TAIPA director-general Tilak Raj Dua said.

The civic bodies and telecom sector players have been at loggerheads over fee to be charged from tower companies for installing and operating sites.

Mr. Dua said the telecom tower industry has held numerous meetings with the municipal corporations to discuss implementation of mediation settlement and issues the industry has been facing for over eight years now.

The Delhi tower policy, 2010, was challenged by the telecom industry in the High Court for ‘exorbitant’ permission fee of ₹5 lakh for five years and ₹1 lakh per service provider for sharing and restriction on locations.

Mediation settlement

A mediation settlement on reference of court was signed by the industry with the civic bodies in January 2017, offering provisions such as deemed approval for 30 days, appointment of nodal officers, documentation as per Department of Telecommunications (DoT) guidelines 2013. The fee part was also renegotiated to ₹1 lakh to ₹2lakh and revised guidelines to be issued in line with DoT advisory guidelines 2013.

“However, the mediation settlement has still not been implemented even after a year...and has resulted in sealing of critical infrastructure amounting to ₹110 crore approximately and no new permissions have been processed for installation of telecom infrastructure,” the statement said.