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Soon call drops around cantonments will become passé, with the Ministry of Defence allowing putting up of towers on the Defence land to improve mobile call quality.
According to various sources, companies will be allowed to install towers in cantonments including in Delhi, Meerut, Ambala and Agra. The decision was taken by the government in October during the Indian Mobile Congress, which was simultaneously approved by the Cabinet and recently in February, the Ministry of Defence also agreed to the policy.
What policy says
The policy will cover allotment of Defence land on lease for static towers, permission to use Defence land on licence basis for placing cell towers on wheels, permitting use of rooftop of government buildings/ private buildings, including private lands for grant of permission in cantonments and Military stations to access service licencees and companies registered with Department of Telecom as infrastructure provider.
Some of the priorities include leasing of Defence land for static mobile tower and /or licence for use of Defence land for placing cell towers on wheels, licence for rooftop towers for Defence/ Cantt Board buildings, licence for static tower on private lands/ buildings other than Defence-owned buildings.
In the first instance, Expression of interest will be invited by Cantonment Board in a cantonment and Station headquarters in a military station for installation of static mobile towers and placing cell towers on wheels (CoW), at locations so decided by interested Access Service Licencees and IP-1 companies, said the policy.
“Indus Towers is already setting up towers. The DoT’s Right of Way has paved the way for faster implementation of policy thereby helping faster tower roll outs,” said an official at a leading tower company.
The mapping is happening and accordingly the company will approach the authorities for permission to put up towers, he said.
A senior official at DoT confirmed that MoUs can be made between multiple tower companies for sharing a tower under the policy in the cantonments. “For instance, BSNL can install a tower that can be shared by others like Airtel, Idea-Vodafone and RJio or a consortium of tower companies on a non-discriminative agreement.”
Infra sharing model
Earlier also, similar process was followed in government buildings/ lands and MoUs were signed between the parties. “This will definitely improve the call drops,” the official added. The Indian ‘Infrastructure Sharing Model’ has now been emulated worldwide. Even China, with over 19 lakh mobile towers, currently has only around five lakh towers under ‘sharing’ model.
“We welcome the recent notification of the revised policy for the deployment of telecom tower and telecom infrastructure in military stations/ cantonments issued by the Ministry of Defence, which has been long pending,” Tilak Raj Dua, Director General, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), said.
The implementation of the guideline will help improve the coverage gap and reduce call drops in military stations and cantonment areas, Dua said. “It will also facilitate the public for making the use of the digital infrastructure. Besides, it will fulfil the objective of Digital India and broadband for all.”
According to TAIPA, there were 4,61,407 towers across India as of December, up from 4,40,357 in December 2016.
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