Summary

  • TEC’s draft guide for India’s 2026 cellular-tower standard marks the dedicated “Test Setup & Procedures” section “Not Applicable.”
  • Elsewhere it calls for destructive full-scale testing, engineering approvals, lab certificates and physical checks. The question is how those proofs become a repeatable type-approval decision.

A tower approval can look impressively specific on paper. The guide covers 20, 30 and 40 metres, antenna loads, foundations, steel, wind and climbing safety. Then the page reserved for test setup and procedures says: “Not Applicable.”

That is the line in TEC’s draft Test Guide 45071:2026 that deserves attention. It does not prove that India conducts no tower tests. The same guide calls for destructive full-scale testing, structural validation, galvanisation checks, engineering approval and physical inspection. But a list of evidence types is not yet a method that tells a testing team what to do, what instrument to use, what result passes, and what record a buyer can compare with another approval.

The timing makes the gap consequential. TEC’s standards register lists the new TEC 45070:2026 general requirements as a type-approval standard dated 21 September, replacing a 2004 edition. On 27 October, the agency opened comments on the associated draft test guide, with submissions due 26 December. The earlier revision of the general requirements had its own consultation from April to July. The register and current consultation notice place the two stages on the record.

The guide does make the tower more measurable. It replaces the earlier uniform 200 km/h design-speed practice with regional values from 120 to 200 km/h. Yet the purchaser or procurer specifies the required class. It also specifies antenna requirements and effective projected area, while the document gives example loading for six panel antennas and three microwave dishes. The guide does not map each state or district to a wind class.

That can be sensible engineering: local exposure and equipment differ. It also moves a consequential choice into procurement. The buyer’s specification helps determine the tower’s design, and the test record must show which wind class and antenna load the approval actually covers.

The guide’s other evidence routes matter. Section 1.6 calls for full-scale destructive testing at a recognised tower test bed for a prototype, wind speed and tower heights; design calculations go to SERC or another government- or BSNL-approved agency. Structural validation and galvanisation tests are named. Some requirements can be supported by accredited-lab certificates; where reports are unavailable, the guide allows physical checks. The results table, meanwhile, can record “Complied,” “Submitted” or “Not Applicable” and includes the applicant’s authorised signature.

So the problem is not an absence of rules. It is the seam between a detailed requirement and the proof used to certify it. A declaration can confirm that a manufacturer says a clause is met. A certificate can establish that a sample passed a specified test. An inspection can verify that a component is present. They answer different questions. The draft does not fill in its dedicated procedure section to show how those answers combine into a reproducible approval.

TEC has two months to make that seam less generous to paperwork. The public record does not explain why the procedure field is blank or whether a separate method sits outside this draft. A completed guide should identify the test setup, instruments, sequence, limits, expected results and evidence record for each clause that requires performance testing. It should also make clear which wind class and antenna loading a type approval covers, and where the site engineer must still certify a foundation.

A tower carries radios, backhaul dishes, workers and the consequences of a design choice into the weather. “Not Applicable” is a poor final instruction for the part of the guide that is meant to explain how anyone checks the design.

TEC standards register; TEC consultation register; draft test guide TEC 45071:2026; April draft revised GR.