Telecom industry hangs up UT tower policy

CHANDIGARH: Things are looking pretty bleak for a city that has a teledensity of nearly 100% and hopes to fetch smart city tag. Dissatisfied by UT's policy on cellphone signal towers, the industry has recently written to the secretary, department of telecommunication, central government, as well as the administrator to suspend the policy.
Significantly, no new tower has been erected in the city in last two years.On the other hand, there has been addition of lakhs of cellphone and wireless broadband users in this time. What's more, even 3G and 4G services were also launched in the city in the meanwhile, putting further strain on the existing infrastructure that remains stagnant. There are only 450 towers, including poles with booster antennas, to cater to a population of over 10 lakh.
That the top industry bodies: Tower And Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), were forced to jointly write a letter on policy being implemented in one city reflects the hurdles being faced in operators. The letter claims that the local administration did not take into consideration their suggestions given during almost year long process.
"Chandigarh Policy on Towers for Mobile Telephone and Data Services" was notified in March. The industry bodies' letter says, "The recent decision on towers for mobile telephone and data services...is not in line with the guidelines framed by the DoT in August 2013."
Pointing out that while the centre was working on projects like 'Digital India' with 'Financial Inclusion' and 'Smart Cities' and providing universal access and broadband on demand, the UT's policy restricts expansion of infrastructure like towers.
"The restrictions on the location of towers will definitely impede tower rollout which will in turn have huge impact on quality of service and issues like dark-spots, no-call zone, and call-drops, will increase in Chandigarh, where the telecom infrastructure is already congested," the agencies have written.
Tilak Raj Dua, director general, TAIPA, told TOI, "The policy brought out by the administration was very detrimental not just to the industry but the public too. It's even more disappointing that the year-and-a-half-long consultation process has come to naught."
"We would also like to draw your kind attention to a recent decision by the Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana dated July 9, 2014, where the court has dismissed a petition seeking to restrain installing mobile tower in the residential area," the letter reads. "The policy also puts at risk thousands of citizens who depend, for their livelihood, security, general communication needs and during medical emergency cases, on the connectivity and telecommunication services provided through these mobile towers," it adds.