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India has recorded 9,152 positive COVID-19 cases and 308 Coronavirus deaths so far. The infectious COVID-19 causing virus is proliferating at a high rate and all the state governments have identified virus hotspots with high infestations in particular areas showing a surge in infection clusters. Maharashtra continues to be the most affected by the disease, as the state has reported 134 more cases, taking the total number of cases to 1,895. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are on close heels and the state governments here are ensuring that the virus hotspots have the highest quarantine measures in place and the authorities are ensuring that every citizen in the hotspot adheres to the rules of the quarantine.
Although these virus hotspots are observing strict lockdown protocols, telecom companies, private mostly, operating in these hotspot areas are facing a challenge. These operators are on the verge of shutting down their services - voice calls and data services. The operators have expressed that their field engineers and technicians deployed as emergency teams across all virus hotspots are unable to execute their operations as the concerned authorities in those areas are not cooperating with them. They are denied access to the areas.
A loss of mobile connectivity in times like this might not go well with mobile subscribers. This could cause a lot of distress among citizens who are trying to communicate with health authorities handling COVID -19 cases or even their own relatives affected by COVID-19. A loss of data connection will severely affect work from home deliverables by subscribers.
Telecom operators' representative body, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has approached DoT to resolve this matter as soon as possible. it is known that COAI has also written a letter to the Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash, saying that the technicians are facing issues in sealed areas as authorities are not allowing them to visit sites in those areas. COAI has urged the telecom ministry to instruct the authorities to cooperate with the telcos teams that include all vendors, fiber and infrastructure providers.