The Department of Telecom (DoT) and the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) have agreed to permit installation of mobile towers at government buildings. The installations, however, will be subjected to structural safety guidelines and payment of appropriate license fee by the telecom service providers (TSPs).
The move is aimed at reducing the problem of call drops. Telecom operators have often cited lack of adequate mobile towers as the primary reason behind frequent call drops. To this end, the DoT is also trying to allay the apprehensions of adverse effects on health due to EMF radiations from mobile towers.
The Ministry of Communications and IT had earlier ordered a special audit of service parameters focused on network performance for checking call drops. TRAI had already laid down the benchmark for call drop rate to be less than 2 per cent. Most of the operators have failed to meet this benchmark.
