The industry bodies, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) and Tower & Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) have approached Department of Telecommunications for installation of towers in areas held by the defense ministry, to resolve the issue of call drops.

The associations are of the view that defence agencies have not been issuing approvals for towers in several cities, which has led to poor mobile and broadband coverage. They have urged DoT to persuade the defence ministry to initially speed up approvals for mobile towers in Navy Nagar in Mumbai and cantonment zones in Delhi, Pune, Lucknow, Gwalior, Jaipur and Leh.

The defence ministry holds land located in key cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Bhopal, Gwalior, Lucknow, Jaipur, Shillong and Leh.