’16 of 37 states aligned with DoT’s infra roll out rules’

New Delhi: Only 16 out of the 37 states/Union Territories in India have aligned with the RoW (Right of Way) Rules, 2016, issued by the Department of Telecom, even after four years, which is jeopardising the rolling out of telecom infrastructure including the towers, laying fibre cable in those states which ultimately affects the call quality, increases network congestion and call drops.

Out of the 37 States/UTs, only 16 states have broadly aligned their policy with RoW Rules 2016 and the other remaining states still need to align their policy with Row Rules 2016, industry body Taipa (Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association) has rued.

“A robust telecom infrastructure will play a key role in seamless connectivity, which is the essence of true “Digitization”. India still needs more than 1,00,000 towers to provide quality services and cater an active subscriber base of more than a billion consumers,” Taipa said.