Thursday, June 10, 2010

Fuel Scarcity Disrupts Wireless Services in India

India’s state of Manipur is under an economic blockade. Members of several Naga tribal groups have blocked the main highway. The reason… authorities blocked a Naga separatist leader from visiting his hometown in the state.

Now, cell phone communications have been significantly affected due to a lack of diesel to run generators that power cell phone towers.

Most of the time, mobile tower generators in Manipur are run with diesel because there’s a shortage of electricity in the region.

[Ch. Usharanjan Singh, Bharati Infratel]:
"Unlike other states, we are not getting enough electricity to run our towers. So we are dependent on diesel and we run our diesel generators and because of the blockade we are not able to procure diesel."

With the blockade continuing for more than 50 days, there are times when almost 80 Airtel mobile towers are out of service. The same is the case with other wireless companies, too.

Mobile telecommunication service provided by BSNL has been reduced by 50 percent in both rural and urban areas because of the blockade.

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