Mobile towers on residential areas: TRAI to decide by June

[Kalyan]

Telecom regulator Trai plans to put in place a national policy by June on setting up telecom towers, as it looks to stop the mushrooming of cellsites in residential areas that has resulted in standoffs between telcos and city administrations.

The policy will apply to cellsites or telecom towers in all cities that have a population of over one million and stipulate the distance to maintain from schools, hospitals and tourist attractions. It will also specify the maximum radiation levels for these masts and state methodologies that will be used to measure it, said a Trai official with direct knowledge of the developments. This assumes importance in the wake of a move by local authorities of Noida, a booming satellite town of New Delhi, over the last couple of days that left hundreds of thousands of mobile users suffering cutoff calls and no reception. This marks the first attempt in India to regulate the telecoms towers space in the country.

Trai chairman JS Sarma confirmed the development and said the regulator had already begun consultations on this issue. "We will formally launch a consultation process next month to seekviews from residents, telecom companies, state governments, local administrations and other stakeholders towards evolving a national policy," he said.

As part of the policy, Trai plans to use a scientific process to work out the optimum number of towers a city will require. "This attempt is aimed at reducing the number tower sites by mandating sharing and also by asking telcos to set up smaller antennae on buildings and connecting the same with fibre," the Trai official quoted earlier said. "We are also examining the proposal to get electricity grids allow telecom companies use their towers/pillars/lampposts to place their equipment and help reduce the number of cellsites in residential areas," he added.


The policy will also attempt to put in place a uniform approval process across the country for setting up of cellsites. Currently all states and metros have different approval guidelines. The Trai official pointed out that the Noida incident was not the trigger for the proposed policy.

The regulator's moves come even as telcos and local authorities are at loggerheads in many cities regarding the location of towers in residential areas. Industry executives say that local governments were looking at cellsites as potential cash cows and this explained recent moves to classify existing units as commercial services. Many cities in India have norms, which state that commercial activities cannot be undertaken in residential areas. Citing these regulations, local authorities in Noida had shut down a third of the mobile towers in that city, calling them illegal. The Delhi government too plans to take similar steps. The capital has 4,532 cellsites and the city administration says 2,517 of them are illegal.

Telecom companies want local authorities to classify towers under infrastructure category, a move that will legalise all sites that are currently located in residential areas. Some of them are also pushing for cellular services to be brought 'essential services' as this will pave the way for further exemptions from statutory levies like municipal taxes, octroi and property taxes.