In a letter to the telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India for government intervention, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) raised concerns over the escalating cases of telecom equipment theft.
COAI Urges Government Intervention
The non-governmental trade association is the official voice for the Indian telecom industry and it represents the likes of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.
The trade association highlighted the significant losses and expenses plaguing the telcos due to equipment getting stolen at affected sites, which ultimately affecting customer services.
By prioritising complaints related to equipment theft and ensuring stringent action, COAI further called upon the Department of Telecom (DoT) to address the issue urgently. In order to curb this issue, COAI seeked the cooperation between the DoT and state authorities.
COAI also alleged that the veral foreign websites, including eBay, Alibaba, Telefly, Seeker816, and Dorfatrade are involved in the selling of stolen active equipment and asked the government to take immediate steps to block such websites.
Rising Telecom Equipment Theft
Pointing out to a significant rise in equipment theft incidents since October 2023, COAI underscored the urgency of the situation.
SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI said in his March 14th letter, “This is to bring to your kind attention a very serious issue being faced by our member TSPs (telecom service providers) across multiple circles – the incidents of theft of active equipment are at an all-time high…from October 2023 onwards, such incidents have increased multifold”.
Highlighting high theft areas like Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, and Haryana, the director general asked for the need for coordinated efforts to curtail the menace.
The trade association also said that it is the end customer who bears the brunt of such activities in the form of reduced service quality or service disruption.
In order to save the consumers’ interest as well as telco industry from this issue, the association has called for prompt action.
