SHILLONG: In its bid to improve cellular connectivity in the capital city and other parts of the state, the Meghalaya Cabinet on Monday approved the draft Meghalaya Telecom Infrastructure Policy, 2018.
Talking to newsmen after the Cabinet meeting, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that the policy will be made effective from January 15, 2019.
Tynsong said that Shillong and many parts of the state have network problems and the government had earlier discussed the matter with the service providers on several occasions after which it decided to come up with a policy.
Informing that around 2000 towers are to be installed in Meghalaya by BSNL and other companies, the deputy chief minister said that many towers of Aircel, which has closed down, were lying unutilised and, with this policy, those would be jointly used by the other service providers. “Now with the policy, 3-4 companies can jointly use the towers,” he said.
The Cabinet was also briefed that people in the state were reluctant to allow the service providers to install towers on their premises. Accordingly, the government has now decided to allow the service providers to install the towers on its office premises.
It was also informed that different service providers have asked for permission to install their towers in the Secretariat where the network of most of the service providers is very weak.
