DoT Activates Intra-Circle Roaming in Four Arunachal Districts amid Cloudburst and Landslides

📌 Summary:

• The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) activated Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) in four Arunachal Pradesh districts — Keyi Panyor, Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri and West Siang — following severe network disruption from heavy rainfall, cloudburst and landslides
• ICR was enabled for an initial three days (till 28 June 2026); it lets subscribers of any participating operator automatically use another available network where their home network is down, including for visitors to these districts
• Damage details: flash floods entered the NEEPCO exchange at Posa, Yazali (rendered non-functional); multiple landslides between Potin and Yazali damaged ~12 km of Optical Fibre Cable (OFC); OFC damage at Hoz hit connectivity in Sagalee, Lemmi, Kampu and Seppa
• Continuous rainfall, landslides and power-supply loss hampered restoration; teams deployed to restore connectivity via the Sopo–Hoz Maan route
• Illustrates use of telecom resilience measures as part of disaster response and the critical role of communications during disasters

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Disaster Management — communication-continuity measures during hydro-meteorological disasters (cloudburst, landslides) and critical-infrastructure resilience.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Intra-Circle Roaming (ICR) lets a subscriber use another operator's network within the same telecom circle when the home network fails
• Districts covered: Keyi Panyor, Lower Subansiri, Upper Subansiri, West Siang (Arunachal Pradesh)
• NEEPCO (North Eastern Electric Power Corporation) exchange at Posa, Yazali was flooded; ~12 km of OFC damaged

🔑 Key Term: Cloudburst — a sudden, very intense, localised rainfall event (often >100 mm/hour over a small area), commonly triggering flash floods and landslides in hilly terrain.