India's Department of Telecom has mandated that the nation's mobile operators open up access to their networks during times of disaster.
Operators will be required to permit intra-circle roaming to customers of all other operators for 15 days from the beginning of a disaster, the Economic Timesreported.
The requirement will apply to all telecom districts affected by the disasters, and will be subject to mutually agreed commercial terms between the operators providing services in the areas.
In addition, operators will be required to issue public emergency alerts to users over SMS or cell broadcasts.
The messages will be provided by disaster management authorities or authorized government agencies.
The rule change follows the introduction of a requirement to implement priority call routing provisions for emergency responders in April.
With the new requirements the DoT is attempting to improve India's communications capabilities during times of disaster and improve emergency responders' ability to act.