Mumbai: The closure of many pole sites (mobile towers) on flying bridges has started disrupting mobile and internet service in many areas of Mumbai and causing trouble to millions of mobile users. There are reports of more than 100 mobile towers being shut down. For this reason, call drops have started happening a lot in Mumbai since the last one month. Organizations of telecom companies and tower companies have urged the state government and MSRDC to take immediate steps in this matter.
In fact, base tower stations of all telecom companies are installed on the flying bridges in Mumbai. The contract is being given to the new company by ending its contract on December 31, 2021, due to the outstanding of crores of rupees on the company to whom this contract was given by MSRDC for installation of pole sites. Because of this, all the towers of the old contractor are going to be removed. Due to which mobile and internet service is getting disrupted. According to sources, the old contractor is said to have a huge dues of around Rs 30 crore. Only then MSRDC has to change the contractor, but this process is taking time.
400 mobile poles are installed on the flying bridges
According to the letter of COAI, the body of telecom companies, more than 100 towers have been closed. Tower removal work is still going on. If all the towers are removed, there is a possibility of mobile network service in major areas of Mumbai being disrupted. According to an estimate, there are 350 to 400 mobile poles on flying bridges across Mumbai. Equipment of telecom companies are installed on every pole.
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Chief Minister’s request for intervention
COAI Director General Dr. S.P. Kochhar has written a letter to MSRDC requesting that no more towers should be closed and the closed towers should be started again, so that the problems being faced by the people are resolved quickly. The Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) has also written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, demanding his early intervention in this matter so that the general public does not face any problem in getting mobile and internet service.