The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) has written to the secretary of the Ministry of Power seeking uninterrupted power supply for tower infrastructure and relaxation in discharge of power bills, including a 45-day grace period.

TAIPA, which is the apex representative body of Telecom Infrastructure Providers, includes the biggest tower cos in India such as Indus Tower, ATC Group, Bharti Infratel, GTL Infra and Reliance Infratel.

Among the relief sought, TAIPA has urged the power secretary to direct states and electricity companies to allow them a 45-day grace period in payment of power bills.

The letter pushed for not levying penalties or other coercive action, such as disconnection of services, in case of delay in payment of bills. TAIPA has made a submission for a move towards online billing. It argued that these reliefs were required as the pandemic and subsequent lockdown had impacted the process of bill collection and payments.

TAIPA has sought uninterrupted electricity supply for tower operations along with providing electricity connection on “priority” for telecom tower sites.

TAIPA stated in the letter that power supply is critical for continued operations of telecom services. It submitted that telecom is an essential service, backbone of e-commerce, banking, healthcare, governance and education.

Director-General of TAIPA, TR Dua said, “Needless to mention, telecom infrastructure (telecom towers) are the backbone to ensure the availability of critical telecom services needed in this emergent situation arisen due to COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Such network infrastructure thus developed by our members can be made available to ensure 24*7 telecom operations in all the States. TAIPA requests for an urgent intervention and support from the Ministry of Power to expedite the rollout of the telecom network (telecom towers) at the faster pace in the States during this crisis situation.”