Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has reportedly sought urgent intervention from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for ensuring 24*7 telecom connectivity during the curfew and lockdown imposed in states/UTs across the country.
To this end, TAIPA has urged the DoT to direct relevant central ministries’ authorities, LSA’s, and state/UT governments to extend support to the telecom infrastructure providers (IP-1) during the lockdown/curfew period.
Further, TAIPA has requested DoT to direct state/UT chief secretaries to allow unrestricted movement of field staff, as well as technicians for accessing telecom tower sites for routine operation and maintenance, diesel refueling, etc.
In addition, the tower body has requested DoT to ask the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and oil companies to ensure round-the-clock availability of diesel for telecom tower companies. TAIPA has also sought uninterrupted electricity supply to all telecom tower site operations in each state on a 24×7 basis and on high priority.
Moreover, TAIPA has maintained that its imperative that DoT ensures that no coercive actions is taken against the field personnel. To this end, it has demanded the de-sealing of telecom tower sites for uninterrupted telecom connectivity.
