BBMP’s wire cutting will disrupt digital services

Bengaluru is staring at potential disruption of digital services as the civic body BBMP has resorted to large-scale cutting of optical fibre cables of telecom and internet service providers, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

This random cutting of OFC across areas like Sarjapur Road, Whitefield, Marathahalli, Bellandur and Sarjapur without any prior intimation to telecom and internet service providers is leading to huge outages and inconvenience to citizens, it said in a press release.

“Over 1,47,200 Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) on approximately 34,700 towers have been installed in Karnataka to support telephone, mobile and internet communications. This alone equals Rs 14,500 crore in network investments. The sector also generates about Rs 10,000 crore per annum in revenues in Karnataka alone,” it said.


BBMP is treating all over-the-ground cables as unauthorised ones, although the industry had obtained all necessary permissions and had originally laid them underground. However, service providers were constrained to lay them overhead with the permission of BBMP as and when the same were unintentionally cut/removed during various civil works carried out by BBMP, BESCOM and BWSSB, COAI said.

COAI director general Rajan S Mathews said: “All our members are fully compliant with the rules and regulations of the concerned authorities. While the industry has been trying to discuss and resolve the issue, BBMP has chosen to remove this key last-mile connectivity infrastructure rather than work with telecom companies to find an amicable solution...”

COAI says BBMP is treating all over-theground cables as unauthorised ones