Eight mobile operators made gross revenues of Rs 354 crore in the June quarter ended 2011 by offering wireless services in North Eastern states in India, but their services broke down on a fatal day when Sikkim, one of the NE states, was rocked by an earthquake of 6.8 magnitude on Sunday.
It is unfortunate that mobile phones did not work in Sikkim during an emergency. Leading operators such as Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, BSNL, S Tel and Vodafone are present in the North East. Their combined mobile user base is around 8 million.
During the June quarter 2011, gross revenues of Bharti Airtel from from North East business were Rs 129 crore, Aircel (Rs 92 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 24 crore), Tata Teleservices (Rs 7 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs 9 crore), BSNL (Rs 56 crore), S Tel (Rs 1 crore) and Vodafone (Rs 36 crore), according to TRAI data.
However, according to media reports, BSNL’s landline was operational on Sunday despite the earthquake. BSNL’s wireline revenue during the June 2011 quarter was around Rs 13 crore. Data pertaining to Sikkim is not available with TRAI.
Despite making decent revenue from mobile operations, these operators are yet to make any investment plan for meeting emergency conditions.
This is not the first time that Indian mobile phones stopped working during a crisis. During 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, phone lines were down. People used social media and micro blogging to keep nation posted about it. It seems India’s telecom department didn’t learn anything when US went through 9/11 terrorist attack and the recent hurricane Irene.
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During 9/11 there were several communications failures at the federal government level. But mobile phones and in-plane credit card phones played a significant role during and after the attack as hijacked passengers were able to call their family authorities to notify what was happening.
There were mistakes of US during 9/11 and Hurricane Irene, as the EAS (Emergency Alert System) was not activated during attack. EAS was put up in 1997 as national warning system of the US, which was supposed to alert the public of local weather emergencies, was designed to enable the President of US to speak to United States within ten minutes.
AT&T, US’s largest service provider, did not charge consumers for making domestic calls originating from the New York City area for the days following 9/11.
The US is focusing on addressing 9/11 kind of issues. The government is encouraging operators to spend funds to meet crisis. For instance, TeleCommunication Systems announced that ClearTalk Wireless selected the TCS-hosted Commercial Mobile Alert System service in US which will meet the Federal Communications Commission’s April 2012 deadline for providing subscribers with automatic alerts in during crisis.
Moreover, U.S. government has Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) which is a White House directed emergency phone service provided by the National Communications System (NCS) in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications Division, National Protection and Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security.
GETS provides emergency access and priority processing in the local and long distance segments of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) which is intended to be used during crisis situation when the PSTN is congested and the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means lacks.
India should act smart and learn from US mistakes and should overhaul what is happening at present in India.
ITU is also active in this area. It dispatched emergency telecommunications equipment to areas affected by the tsunami that struck the coastal areas of Japan. Last year in Indonesia, ITU deployed a hybrid of 40 broadband satellite terminals in terms to restore communication links in the aftermath of a tsunami caused by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake and a volcanic eruption that hit the Indonesian archipelago in two separate incidents.
But this is not enough. There should be a synergetic telecommunication system specially designed for emergencies, as telecommunication saves life.
India needs to come-up with a system like CMAS as India is facing incidents such as earthquake, floods, blast at Delhi or Mumbai etc.
The initiative can be from leading operators also. Please follow AT&T or Verizon in the US. Leading private service providers like Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, BSNL, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and others can step forward during emergency and should put additional funds so that during emergency communication is not disrupted.
By Rashi Varshney
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