In a rather unorthodox response to a petition by residents alleging that a cell tower was being constructed in their neighborhood in violation of a local recommendations of an inter-ministerial committee, India’s Delhi High Court dismissed their plea and basically said that residents of Vasant Kunj should stop using their cell phones and revert back to using landlines, and then, voilà, you’ll only need voice and cell towers won’t be needed. Problem solved.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said if residents would use their landlines they wouldn’t have to worry about the proliferation of cell towers.
Residents claim the Delhi Development Authority has given approval for 450 towers to be constructed of which 17 will be installed in Vasant Kunj.
According to a report by DNA, Delhi High Court Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said the usage of technology as well as interference in its functioning cannot go hand-in-hand, stating that if cell phone useage was stopped by residents, then the service providers will not put up cell towers.
India is a hotbed for new tower construction and, according to consulting firm Deloitte, they will grow at 3% a year over the next four to five years.
Currently there are 400,000 cell towers in India and by 2020 there should be more than 511,000.
The tower industry tenancy ratio, according to Deloitte’s findings, is expected to grow from 1.77 (FY2015) to 2.48 by 2020 primarily due to the focus on data. Overall site tenancies (2G, 3G & 4G all inclusive) are expected to increase to approximately 1,268,000 by FY2020.
American Tower is the only US-based tower company with a portfolio in India. If an expected deal for them to buy Viom Networks’ towers goes through, they will own approximately 52,000 towers in India