On the heels of the decree to allow cell towers on government property, the telecom industry is now asking for defense land to be made more accessible for the same purpose too. Tower and network operators alike have joined hands over the matter in order to reduce the problem of call drops.
They have sent the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) a joint letter, seeking their help to convince the armed forces to give the necessary permissions. If allowed, more mobile towers could be installed across the country. It would boost the signal strength in metropolitan areas such as Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi, Leh, Pune, Jaipur Bhopal, Bangalore, Gwalior, Kolkata and Shillong.
The Defense Ministry holds a significant portion of prime real estate in key sites. While mobile towers are allowed to be installed on military land, network providers are accusing the army of not issuing approvals in many towns. They say such actions worsen the call drop problem in urban centers where strategic pieces of land are located in the heart of the city.
A high-ranking executive of a leading GSM carrier told the Economic Times that the issue has been aggravated due to delays in constructing towers at cantonment areas in places such as Delhi, Pune, Lucknow, Mumbai and Gwalior. Three telecom lobby groups echoed a similar sentiment in a letter they sent to the DoT.
According to them, the army is hindering their efforts to install towers on defense establishments, which has resulted in poor mobile and broadband coverage. The document has been written jointly by the Cellular Operators Association of India, the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, and the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association.
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They have further asked for an overhaul of the defense ministry’s 2008 policy regarding setting up of cell towers. An executive in the industry explained that the current one is cumbersome and required several separate follow-ups with multiple departments. He hoped the armed forces would introduce a transparent tendering exercise to lease land to network providers.
Mobile operators have been the targets of the DoT’s ire recently, with the Modi government making the necessity of resolving call drops a priority and considering penalties against companies that can’t alleviate the problem.