DoT dials cops to stop network gear theft
DoT) has called on its enforcement units to alert all state police departments across India to clamp down on the rampant theft of critical network gear that has already triggered around Rs 800 crore of losses for telcos, disrupted 4G/5G expansions and impacted quality of mobile coverage.
In a directive, dated May 27, the department has asked its field enforcement units in all licence service areas (LSAs) to also conduct quarterly reviews of the telecom gear theft situation with national law enforcement agencies. It also wants the matter to be taken up at upcoming state broadband committee meetings.
The DoT directive comes after Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) recently sought the government’s intervention, saying they were facing huge losses and heavy additional replenishment costs amid rising incidence of network gear theft across India. They had pointed out that expensive active telecoms infrastructure gear such as remote radio units (RRUs) and base-band units (BBUs) were being regularly stolen since October 2023.
“The LSAs are requested to conduct regular meetings with telecom service providers (TSPs) on the equipment theft and sensitise state police regarding the issue,” the DoT said in an internal letter to its field enforcement units, a copy of which was seen by ET.
In its letter, DoT added that telcos had pointed out that such telecom equipment theft incidents were higher in some geographies, including Delhi-NCR, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and
