Illegal Jammers Hampering Mobile Services: COAI

New Delhi, Feb 4 (PTI) Telecom industry body COAI has written to the telecom department that illegal jammers and repeaters installed at educational institutes, homes and firms are deteriorating mobile networks service quality, resulting in call drops and low data speed for consumers.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, etc, has requested the Department of Telecom (DoT) to take action against the illegal jammers and boosters and write to all states, informing them that use of such equipment is an offence under the Telecommunications Act 2023, which should be stopped immediately.

COAI Director General SP Kochhar said that there are instances wherein during the routine monitoring of the network, degradation in RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) parameter is observed.

"Upon further analysis for such degradation, it surfaced that the degradation of RSSI parameters is primarily due to installation of jammers by educational institutions/ schools, without obtaining necessary approval from the competent authority and installation of illegal boosters by households/companies, etc," Kochhar said.

The industry body also shared link boosters allegedly being sold on Amazon India.

"We appreciate the efforts done by the WPC (Wireless Power Consortium) to curb the issue by issuing notice to the e-commerce companies to stop the sale and/or facilitation of the sale of wireless jammers on their online platforms. However, it is highly concerning that despite the WPC's efforts, such boosters are still available for sale on online platforms," Kochhar said.

COAI has requested the government again issue notices or impose penalties on online platforms engaged in sale of illegal repeaters and jammers.

The industry cited provisions of the Telecommunications Act which mentions that illegal possession of any equipment that blocks telecommunication shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to fifty lakh rupees, or with both.

COAI has requested the DoT to take immediate steps towards the formation of adequate Rules for adoption by all concerned entities, citing the provisions of the Telecommunications Act 2023, including digitisation of the end-to-end process for better enforcement, starting from a complaint by TSP till the removal of such equipment (lodging complaint - issuance of assignment letter - conducting search of such telecommunication equipment - taking possession and initiation of legal action).

It has also urged the DoT to write to all State Chief Secretaries that use of illegal repeaters and jammers is an offence under the Telecommunications Act, 2023, and to stop use of such illegal equipment.

"Write to M/s Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) to deploy jammers only in consonance with the Jammer Guidelines issued by the Cabinet Secretariat. For any deployment in the past beyond the said guidelines, details of such deployment be shared with the DoT and immediately uninstalled," Kochhar said.