Bengaluru likely to face internet outage as unauthorised cables on electric poles to be removed in a week

Bescom has taken this decision following two incidents where pedestrians were injured due to dangling OFCs.

Bengaluru, the country's tech capital, is likely to face an internet blackout which could mainly affect work-from-home employees and tech firms.

The reason: Bengaluru Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) plans to remove within a week all-optical fibre cables (OFCs), data cables, and dish cables that have been laid on electrical poles.

Bescom has taken this decision following two incidents where pedestrians were injured after electric poles crashed due to dangling OFCs. On August 22, electric pole collapsed in Sadduguntepalya near Koramangala, injuring a 21-year-old college student, who suffered 35 percent burns. On August 19, another pole fell on a 23-year-old pedestrian in Devarabisanahalli near Bellandur.

"In two separate incidents in Bengaluru, pedestrians were injured by falling electric poles due to unauthorised OFCs, dish cables, and internet data cables laid on electric poles. Following these incidents, Bescom has decided to remove all unauthorised cables within one week," Bescom said in a statement.

It stated that if OFC and dish cable operators fail to remove these cables within one week, Bescom will remove them itself and lodge cases against the concerned operators.

Disruption of operations

Bengaluru residents have been complaining about unauthorised cables on electric poles for several years. However, the move could also disrupt the operations of some IT firms situated in India's Silicon Valley.

"A majority of the illegal wires have already been removed, and this is negatively impacting employees working from home. We kindly request better coordination between the management of Bescom and the BBMP OFC cell," Outer Ring Road Companies Association, which represents tech companies between Central Silk Board and KR Puram, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

In fact, residents in areas such as Sarjapur Road, Carmelaram, and HSR Layout have been complaining that the internet has been down for the past few days.

In 2019, areas like Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur Road, Whitefield, Marathahalli, Bellandur, and Sarjapur experienced internet outages due to the removal of illegal cables by the Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) without prior intimation to telecom and internet service providers.

This prompted the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), which represents telecom companies, to issue a statement warning that the removal of OFC without prior notice to providers could result in outages and inconvenience to users.

In Karnataka, nearly 1.5 lakh Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) and around 50,000 towers have been installed to facilitate telephone, mobile and internet communications. Given the multiple government agencies involved in road digging for power, water and gas, many operators laid OFCs through aerial routes.