Port Blair, Apr 09: The Andaman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) today took up the matter of poor internet and mobile connectivity in A & N Islands. In a letter addressed to the Union Minister of Communication & Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & I.T., Mr. Kapil Sibal the president of ACCI, Mr. G Bhaskar pointed out that that the Internet Services in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands provided by the BSNL are very poor and the people of these islands specially residing in Port Blair are not at all satisfied with the performance of the existing net and mobile connections.
He added that similarly, the performance of the AIRTEL, VODAFONE and RELIANCE NET who are the main internet service providers in the islands are also very poor due to which the customers are put into great difficulty in contacting far off places for their business as well as other needs.
“We have seen that recently there have been severe criticism from the general public as well as from the local media targeting the BSNL’s very poor performance in the matter of net connection and mobile service because of the poor signal reception. Of late Business and Trading community in the islands purely depend on the internet service for trading between mainland and islands. Now most of the competitive examinations such as JEE and NEET being conducted by the CBSE, Entrance Examinations being conducted by several other Universities for the prospective students for admission to undergo higher studies on the mainland and job interviews are conducted online and the students of these far flung islands are not able to attend and are deprived of equal opportunity at par with their counterparts on the mainland,” Mr Bhasker added.
He further said that course materials for these courses and exams are now only to be accessed online which is next to impossible to download such contents.
The President ACCI said that the Tourism industry, which is globally online is facing difficulty in promoting destination Andaman as hoteliers are not able to access and manage inventory Portals online. Even the Banks, Airline Offices, Local Railway Booking Office and Travel Agencies are doing their daily business and booking tickets online. But due to poor Net services they are all facing difficulties to have quick deals and transactions with the customers.
He pointed out that under the tourism sector, adequate infrastructure has been created at various islands by the Administration and the Private entrepreneurs to promote tourism at par with the tourist destinations on the mainland. A large number of Hotels have also come up at Port Blair and other important islands at Private sector for the benefit of the tourists. Rooms bookings are being done through on line service from mainland by the Travel Agencies and Tourists who intend visit these islands in advance. Due to very poor internet connectivity neither the Tourists from mainland nor the Hoteliers of these islands could book or confirm the reservations to the customers and also monitor the business being run in their hotels which put them in an embarrassing situation causing heavy loss to them in business.
“If this situation continues further, the Chamber is afraid that they will be losing business very heavily in the near future.
The ACCI president in his letter requested the Minister to kindly look into the whole issue personally and take necessary action to augment the capacity and speed of the internet link and mobile services in the islands on priority.
Yea, it is the need of the hour. It’s high time, something has to be done to avoid chaos.