If you happen to be a mobile subscriber in Rajasthan, chances are high that you might be facing huge connectivity issues right now. Before you get frustrated and decide to call the customer care number of your telephone operator, let us tell you that it might be an excercise in futility – at least for the next few weeks. Here’s why.
An order passed by the Rajasthan High Court on August 22, 2012 has resulted in the removal of as many as 199 mobile transmission towers from school buildings across the state. The court had ordered that mobile networks stop using these towers effective Monday, September 10, 2012. on the same day 199 of these towers spread across 40 towns across Rajasthan went offline.
Current estimates peg the number of people affected to be around 35 lakh. Of these, 25 lakh affected consumers belong to the capital city Jaipur itself.
A senior official from Airtel has confirmed the “outage” and has stated that he estimates that full normalization of services could take as long as 30 to 90 days. The reason for this delay is that the companies would have to find new places to establish new towers, sign deals with land owners and finally set up all the infrastructure needed to set one up. Doing the same activity for 199 towers will surely take time.
While the health risks posed by mobile towers is a debatable topic, we think it was a bit draconian on the part of the courts to issue the directive to remove these towers without giving the companies enough time to respond and to make alternate arrangements. The common man is the most affected in this case anyway.
Are you one of those 35 lakh people affected by the removal of these towers?
Image courtesy: The Hindu
