Private mobile towers in govt buildings soon
In order to improve mobile services and address call drop problems, private companies will reportedly be allowed to install towers in the buildings belonging to the Union government, New Delhi Municipal Council, Postal department and defence establishment.
The ministry of urban development has agreed in principal to allow installation of mobile towers on government buildings subject to structural safety and payment of license fee by the telecom service providers. These mobile towers will reportedly be a shared facility for all service providers. The government agencies and local bodies had earlier refused to give permission to service providers to install their towers in their buildings on security grounds. A Parliamentary standing committee on call drops, headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur, has recommended that department of telecom and mobile service providers should urgently take up the issue with the postal department and other central ministries so as to enable the telecom operators to speedily set up towers in their respective buildings. The report said that the defence wing has issued a detailed policy guideline for installation of Cell-On-Wheels (CoW) in cantonment areas. It said that 61 locations in Delhi cantonment area have been identified in a joint survey conducted by DoT, defence estate, service providers and other defence authorities. The tender, which has already been opened on January 04, 2017, is under evaluation. The defence wing initiated a cabinet note to lease out defence land for installation of mobile towers on all-India basis to improve the quality of service and address the problems related to call drops. Like defence wing, postal department had framed guidelines last year for use of its buildings for BTS-installations. It is learnt that service providers had raised concerns and held a meeting on January 5, 2017 for certain modifications which are now under active consideration of the postal department.
The report said that setting up towers in government buildings would definitely prove to be of considerable help in improving network performance further, as in many cities, government buildings and defence areas are the only places where towers can be set up. The committee noted that a majority of government departments do not allow installation of base transceiver station as a matter of policy.