Bharti Airtel on Monday has written to all other telecom operators to co-operate in intra circle roaming to ensure all its customers are connected during the lockdown in different States due to novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

"In line with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP-17) for telecommunication services for responding to disasters, as issued by Department of Telecommunications, we would like to put in place a protocol amongst the TSPs for implementation of various measures, including intra circle roaming," the Airtel letter said to other operators including Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, BSNL and MTNL.

This will be particularly relevant, where a site is shut or the telecom service provider (TSP) is not able to manage the up time, so that, it can collectively ensure that the services are not interrupted.

"We are witnessing an unprecedented situation. All efforts are being made on the ground by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19," Airtel said in the letter.

And, in light of the above reasons, the company has also nominated its Chief Technology Officer Randeep Sekhon as be a single point of contact, and requested other TSPs to provide the same to Airtel so that the person can be reached out to on short notice for implementing this protocol.

The company said that since the government has implemented closure of many commercial establishments, social centres, educational institutes and has also advised work from home in case of offices/organisations, it was incumbent on the telecom industry to ensure continuous and uninterrupted availability of telecom and internet services, which are essentially the backbone of the digital infrastructure.

"It is therefore of paramount importance that at this crucial juncture, we come together as an industry to serve the nation and prepare ourselves for any kind of exigency," the company added in the letter.

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