Mobile ‘Ghostbusters' Strike Back, Pluck Out Signal Boosters In S Delhi

Amplifiers To Improve Connectivity Akin To Illegal Use Of Handpumps, Say Officials

- Paras Singh

New Delhi: With what appeared to be outdated, oversized mobile handsets sporting antennae, the men walked along the lanes of Sant Nagar near Kailash Colony on Friday. The scene, almost straight out of the Ghostbusters franchise, elicited curiosity and a crowd gathered around them. “We are only trying to detect illegal signal boosters put up by the locals to improve phone signal strength,” explained Anshuman Tiwari, a junior wireless officer in the Union government’s department of telecommunications. As he spoke, Tiwari noticed a spike in the pulsating yellow beats on the spectrum analyzer, for that was what the device was, and alerted his colleagues.

Inspection officer BK Ram, looking dead serious in his grey safari suit, pointed his device at a building. The team from the telecom department’s wireless monitoring organization (WMO) entered the building to discover a Chinese signal booster with a rooftop antenna. It was swiftly taken down, and a notice issued to the residents, who pleaded that they hadn’t known it was illegal to boost mobile signal strength.