The bursting satellite township and commercial hub NOIDA came to a grinding halt with the sudden and abrupt sealing drive by NOIDA Authority during the weekend, causing massive disruption in cellular mobile communication service and therefore leading to inconvenience and public outcry.

Speaking on the critical issue, Mr. T.R. Dua, Officiating Director General, COAI & Mr. S.C.Khanna, Secretary General, AUSPI stated that they are most concerned on the action taken by the NOIDA Authority, as the same will adversely affect the daily lives of citizens/public. The impact will be more severe for those who rely on mobile services during the emergency situations.

Mr. Dua emphasized that the mobile towers are most critical for the provision of seamless communication services. Being the backbone of the telecom infrastructure, sealing of any tower, breaks the link in the chain leading to call drops and blackouts resulting in complete breakdown of communication services.

Mr. Khanna further stated that it was most unfortunate that NOIDA authorities decided to seal the towers before providing an opportunity to the service providers to put across their concerns on the tower installation guidelines, which were unilaterally prepared by the Authority without any consultations with the industry on the implications and implementation issues involved in the same.

Both Mr. Khanna and Mr. Dua, pointed out that there were also several elements in the guidelines sought to be implemented that are difficult and impractical to comply with. For example, the provision that a tower can only be set up on a building that has a completion certificate, may be difficult to comply with as it is a well-known fact that there are many buildings where this formality has not been yet completed.

While the location of the towers is based on a number of factors, including the radio frequency plans of the operators, number of subscribers in the area etc, however structural stability of the tower and the building on which it is installed are always assured, stated Mr. Dua. He further added that all the operators have been complying with the safety norms and shall continue to do so in the interest of the public safety.

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is already in an advance stage of coming out with a consultation paper on installation of the cellular mobile towers.

Further adding to this Mr. Dua said that the Telecom Regulator and the DoT are the most

competent bodies to address this issue. We should await the consultation process, as it would be most detailed, transparent and comprehensive exercise. DoT’s recommendation should be made statutory to be adopted in all states across the country.

Mr. Dua stated that the entire industry was fully committed to engaging with TRAI on this important matter in order to come out with a common “ National Telecom Infrastructure /tower Policy” that will be uniformly applicable throughout the country.

The same would be drafted after consultation with all the major stakeholders and public at large.

In the meantime they have urged the NOIDA authorities to maintain status quo on the issue and restore the cellular communication services by de-sealing the towers.