Guwahati, July 23: In a bid to keep communication lines open in disaster-hit areas, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has activated Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) in flood- and landslide-affected districts of Assam and Nagaland, allowing mobile users to connect to any available network when their own service is disrupted.
The emergency measure has been rolled out in Mon district of Nagaland and Sivasagar, Charaideo and Jorhat districts of Assam, which have been severely affected by heavy rainfall, flash floods and landslides triggered by the recent cloudburst in Nagaland. Similar arrangements have also been made in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the ICR arrangement, subscribers of any telecom operator will automatically latch onto another operator’s network if their home network is unavailable due to damaged infrastructure. The facility will also be available to visitors travelling through the affected districts.
The DoT said the move is aimed at ensuring uninterrupted communication for residents, emergency responders, healthcare workers and government agencies involved in relief and rescue operations.
The department said it has activated its emergency response mechanism and is working closely with telecom service providers to restore damaged infrastructure and normalise services at the earliest.
The DoT has advised users to keep Automatic Network Selection enabled on their mobile phones. If automatic switching does not work, users can manually select another available network through their phone’s mobile network settings.
The emergency roaming facility comes as flood-hit districts in Upper Assam and Mon district in Nagaland continue to grapple with the aftermath of extreme rainfall that damaged roads, bridges and telecom infrastructure, hampering communication during relief operations.
