Power outage downs 22,000 cell towers in coastal belt

Millions of people were facing disruptions to telecommunications services after Cyclone Remal caused power outages that knocked out around 22,000 cell towers in the coastal belt, according to authorities on Monday.
As of 6:00 pm on Monday, telecom industry sources reported that power outages had affected over half of the country's 45,000-plus cell towers.
These outages were due to pre-emptive shutdowns by power providers as a safety measure during the cyclone.
The Power Division implemented these electricity shutdowns across various southern coastal areas, along with partial outages in other regions, for nearly 15 hours to prioritise cyclone safety.
Mobile network operators were using alternative backup measures to keep the remaining towers functioning.
However, they warn that if the power outage continues, all cell phone towers in roughly 17 districts could go out of service.
The Association of Mobile Telecom Operators of Bangladesh (AMTOB) issued a statement on Monday confirming that nearly 15,000 sites in these areas were down due to electricity disruptions.
"Mobile network operators are working closely with the authorities to restore the network as quickly as possible," the statement read.
"We are using generators and batteries to maintain network services, but with a maximum capacity of 8-10 hours, interruptions are inevitable," said Taimur Rahman, chief corporate and regulatory affairs officer of Banglalink.
"We also want to ensure the safety of our teams working tirelessly to restore connectivity. To further ensure our customers' safety, we have also introduced a cyclone tracker on the MyBL app," he added.

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