A video of a burning tower is being shared on social media with a claim that a 5G tower was set ablaze in Gujarat.
“गुजरात मे 5G टावर जला दिया,” the post caption read.
(Translation:5G tower burnt in Gujarat)
Here’s the link to the above post.
Similar posts can be seen here, here, here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the post and found the claim to be false and misleading.
Upon extracting the keyframes of the video and putting them through Reverse Image Search, we found the same video on YouTube uploaded in January 2018.
“Barada main mobile tower me aag,” the video title read.
Other YouTube channels also shared the same video in 2018. The links can be found here and here.
We then ran a Google search to gain more information about 5G trials in India and found a report by India Today dated May 4, 2021, with the headline, “DoT gives go-ahead to telecom service providers for 5G trials in India.”
As per the report, ‘the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), gave permission to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to conduct trials for use and applications of 5G technology in India. The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea and MTNL’.
We also found a post on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs dated May 11, 2021. “Telecom Department Gives Go-ahead For 5G Technology Trials,” the title of the post read.
The post stated that ‘DoT has allotted telecom service providers (TSPs) Jio, Airtel and Vodafone, along with the public sector MTNL, experimental spectrum in a range of bands including mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimeter wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in Sub-Gigahertz band (700 GHz)’.
Earlier, NewsMobile had debunked various other posts related to 5G testing in India, including the one claiming that 5G technology used on cellular phones for the Internet is responsible for spreading coronavirus. The links to the articles can be found here, here and here.
https://newsmobile.in/articles/2020/04/27/fake-alert-no-5g-is-not-spreading-the-coronavirus/
Moreover, we found some recent reports stating that the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, has urged the government to remove fake messages linking 5G with coronavirus.
In the letter, they called the claim baseless as networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. The reports on the same can be read here, here and here.
Hence, from the above information, it is clear that the video of the burning tower is old and not related to 5G testing in India.
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