No cell tower == no cell service == no internet.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/farmers-protest-teleco...
Yes some towers are shared, but that would be irrelevant if the targets of vandalism weren't. No other carrier other than Jio and Reliance have made a large noise about damages to their infrastructure. This makes me believe that the other carriers were not affected.
In any case the farmer protests have distanced themselves from such acts of vandalism and openly criticized them.
> No cell tower == no cell service == no internet.
Are you implying that this internet shutdown in Delhi protest area has nothing to do with Government Orders?
It's no cheap to replace a tower and someone has to pay up. The Govt has declined to pay for the tower. The protestors have blamed it on some rouge elements that infiltrated the protest. Some towers were managed by ZTE or some related Chinese entity that is also stuck in a limbo due to the Chinese ban and now they are seeking compensation for damaged towers as a way to recoupe their investments. Which is another reason why Govt wants to break this trend of paying for towers damaged by the protesters.
Ofcourse, none of this news can be authenticated. There are also claims that cell service was blocked in Delhi for the protestors as retaliation for destroying the towers in Punjab by the protestors. As the towers damaged in Delhi seems to collateral to the protest commotions rather than targeted attacks and less in numbers.
Even then, there are Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone (?) & some others too. Not every tower is shared. & private property damaged by any mob is I think never paid by government (that would take like million years). Most of this is insured.
I still believe that this was just a blackout ordered by Government. Same way it has ordered porn sites ban, & many other blackouts. I remember in 2018 my district in Punjab was blacked out of any network for 3 days, & when we drove across Satluj to Ludhiana, all networks were fine.
India is not losing its freedom, but with the amount of population and rumour mongering on whatsapp/social media tamping down on the internet sometimes is necessary. Earlier before data become ubqiquitous, they used to clamp down on SMS.
Delhi Protest, nobody was even talking about any election results, there was no elections, there was no intentions or talks about changing the power to different hands/party/leader.
Only Extremist Hindus are not losing any freedom. All Other religions, castes, minorities, poor people are under constant attack in this BJP Rule, be it Beef Lynching, Cow Transporter Lynching, Valentine Beatings, CAA, NRC, JNU, Kashmir & many others.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_WhatsApp_lynchings
https://www.wired.com/story/how-whatsapp-fuels-fake-news-and...
I do not like shutting of Internet in any area but I am not the one responsible for maintaining law and order. Additionally, in the age of e2e apps, it becomes quite difficult to find the real perpetrators.
It is standard practice in India to cut off Internet access in places where there are riots or riots expected to happen or for some nebulous “national security” concern. In fact, India tops the list of countries with the most Internet shutdowns in the last few years (you can check this out online).
In one state (where wired broadband penetration is quite low), mobile Internet access was disabled for several months even during the pandemic!
The government and its law enforcement agencies do not know of other ways to handle these and resort to more of a “control and crush” mode.
Maybe certain circumstances lead to certain decisions. What’s more shocking is that there’s no transparency on why access is blocked, who got it done, when the block will be lifted (and for what reasons). A democracy cannot thrive when the ruling powers along with law enforcement hold everything as a secret and don’t appreciate questions from the citizens.
It’s sad to see India becoming more closed and authoritarian.
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