Local cable operators have no mandate to prevent telecom companies from using poles to fix optical fibres for last-mile connectivity, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation told the operators in a meeting on Tuesday.
If operators come to know that a telecom company is using a street pole in violation of rules set by the civic body, they must alert the CMC, they were told. But in no way they should start acting like a government authority.
Fingers have been pointed at the operators for not allowing telecom companies to take connections to their customers.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which describes itself as “the official voice for the Indian telecom industry”, had written to the mayor of Calcutta earlier this month that the local cable operators (LCOs) were not allowing them to use poles for last-mile connectivity and were even snipping the cables in some places.
Rules framed by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) say all optical fibres must be taken underground and the fibres can be aerial only in the last mile when the connection will enter a house.
The letter from the cellular operators alleged that local cable operators (LCOs) were not allowing them to take the aerial route in the last mile.
“We told the LCOs that the CMC has not empowered them to act against any violation by any other company. They have no right to prevent any other company from conducting their business,” a senior CMC official, who was present in the meeting, said.
“The CMC has not outsourced its role to anyone. If the LCOs have knowledge of any wrongdoing by telecom companies, they must alert the CMC. It is the CMC and the police that have the power to act against a telecom company if it violates any rule,” the official said.
The CMC has often used the infrastructure and the human resource of local operators while removing cables from poles or while trying to fix any other issue witha street pole. “But that should not lead the operators to believe that they have the power to act as a representative of the CMC,” the official said.
The CMC is the custodian of all street poles in the Calcutta municipal area.
The operators were also told on Tuesday that the CMC was planning to lay underground ducts along 40 arterial roads in the city. A survey to ascertain feasibility of the project will start soon.
Tapas Das, a member of the All Bengal Cable TV and Broadband Operators United Forum, said: “We were told to give in writing how many cables we have over each of these roads so that the civic body has an idea about the number of cables to be taken underground.”
Das denied that any LCO had prevented telecom companies from providing connections to their customers. “This is a complete lie,” he said.
Cross bars, which are steel structures that have been fixed to street poles in many places to hang a thick bunch of cables, have to be removed from the poles. The cross bars and the cables together put enormous load on poles, as a result of which many of the posts have leaned.
