The telecom industry, represented by associations COAI and TAIPA, on Thursday warned the public against frauds related to the installation of mobile towers on properties. While COAI is the representative body of telecom service providers, TAIPA represents telecom infrastructure firms. “The public is cautioned against certain companies, agencies, or individuals who are fraudulently approaching people and asking them to deposit money in their personal or company accounts in the name of tax for leasing their premises for installation of mobile towers,” a joint statement by the associations said.
It warned that the same individuals are also offering fake ‘No Objection Certificates’ for the installation of towers. “Mobile towers are installed either by Telecom Service Providers (TSP) or Infrastructure Providers (IP) and members of the public are requested to verify authenticity by visiting the websites of TSPs or IPs before accepting any offers for tower installation,” the statement said. An updated list of approved TSPs and IPs is also available at www.dot.gov.in. Mobile towers are installed by operators like Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea or by authorised telecom infrastructure providers, Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar said.
“Consumers are requested to verify the authenticity and bonafide of the people or organisations that are approaching them for tower installation on the website of the related company, Kochhar said. T R Dua, director general, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), said mobile towers are installed by the telecom infrastructure providers like Indus Towers, American Tower Corporation, Summit Digitel Infrastructure and Ascend Telecom. Others include Tower Vision, Coslight India Telecom Private Limited, Sterlite Technologies Limited, Space World, Suyog Telematics, iBus Networks and Applied Solar Technologies. “We have been taking several steps to caution the general public about the frauds and have devised various modes to collect the information about potential locations through various channels such as toll-free number, website, e-mail etc,” Dua said.
