COAI

BBMP

Bengaluru

Bangalore

The Cellular Operators Association of India () has condemned the's drive of disconnecting the optical fibre cables saying that it was leading to huge outages and inconvenience to the citizens in densely populated areas across the city.In a statement, COAI said that the BBMP was treating all over-the-ground cables as unauthorised, though the industry had obtained permissions and had originally laid them underground. However, the service providers were constrained to lay them overhead with the permission of BBMP as and when the same were unintentionally cut/removed during various civil works carried out by BBMP, BESCOM, BWSSB etc.The disconnection of the cable by BBMP is a huge blow to the Digitalplan, which will severely impact essential services including Point of Sale purchase applications at retail outlets and various government services in Bengaluru. It will also result in a complete communication black-out. This action will not only jeopardise the operations of companies/industries at India’s Silicon Valley, but will also have a huge impact on consumers and citizens."BBMP must stop this retrograde and regressive fibre cutting drive immediately, as it is damaging operations of businesses and individual customers. At present, there is no comprehensive policy in Bengaluru which can ensure smooth provisioning of telecom infrastructure. Hence, Karnataka Government should formulate a comprehensive state tower policy that is aligned with Right of Way rules dated November 2016 issued by the Government of India to facilitate smooth deployment of telecom infrastructure across the city," said Rajan S Mathews, Director General, COAI.TR Dua, Director General, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) commented, “Before taking any suo moto coercive action, BBMP should have called industry for a bilateral discussion to resolve the subject matter of concerns. This impulsive action will impact the overall internet connectivity and businesses especially IT firms in. In 2012, BBMP in an affidavit filed before the Hon’ble High Court of Karnataka clearly stated not to cut or claim any rent till such time appropriate rules/bye-laws/regulations are made. Since then, there are no rules/ by-laws/ regulations notified by the BBMP.""In order to streamline the issue, first step for the state of Karnataka is to align its draft policy with the Right of Way rules issued in November 2016 issued by the Department of Telecommunication to ensure deployment of critical telecom tower infrastructure with ease and lawfully. Once notified, the focus should come on implementation of the policy downline so that they are no such suo moto coercive actions taken," he added.The retrograde and arbitrary action destroys all the serious efforts that industry has been taking to turn the vision of Digital India, Smart City and cashless economy into a reality,” said Dua.