New Delhi, May 22 -- Surging power demand in peak summer and hiked prices of diesel, used to run generators during outages, are fanning telecom and tower companies' concerns. The industry has warned that unreliable grid power could hit mobile network services and raise operating costs, prompting the department of telecommunications (DoT) to step up action to ensure uninterrupted supply to tower sites.

The issue of power availability, an ongoing concern for the tower companies, has been raised by the industry at multiple meetings with the DoT.

Last week, the department held a meeting with the telecom industry executives to map the issues with regard to availability of electricity across states and how the electricity distribution compani...