Trinath
Billyground, Aug 28: Facing erratic telecom services for weeks now, residents of Billyground in Middle Andaman are in a state of extreme unrest. The rage among villagers over the poor services of BSNL has mounted manifold and a massive public outrage over the state of affairs is reportedly impending in near future, according to sources.
The mobile service became so unpredictable in the centre of the North and Middle Andaman region that scenes of people wandering about with their handsets in search of proper signals have become widespread recently.
According to information, from landline services to internet connections and mobile services provided in this region by the premier service provider – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has become so unreliable that many subscribers have declared their equipments are merely millstones.
Sources inform that the BSNL tower at Billyground is lying redundant for the last weeks. However, the BSNL authorities care two hoots to depute technicians to rectify the problems. Similarly, the communication from telecom tower at adjoining Swadesh Nagar is so poor that subscribers seldom get the chance to use the mobile phones or other communication devices. To add to the woes, villagers of remote hamlets are forced to venture out to the main bazaar area to grab signals to make a telephone call.
Alleging mismanagement on the part of the BSNL authorities for the predicament, villagers claim, officials apathy is the root cause for the telecom trouble in Billyground and nearby areas.
This region has a good number of telecom subscriptions after Rangat and Mayabunder regions. While, Rangat and Mayabunder are blessed with constant telecom connectivity, the center of Middle Andaman has been left bereft of the modern day facility. Rangat and Mayabunder has Airtel connectivity but sadly Billyground doesn’t have Airtel coverage.
Consumers avail almost all the services of BSNL from Landlines to Broadband, Cellular connections etc. However the premier service provider has not been living upto the expectations of scores of consumers in this region. Business people relying on internet connections are trading losses owing to the reason. Intermittent networks have propelled many customers to throw their handsets following consistent problems. In case of an emergency it is impossible to contact anyone for help because the mobiles remain dead most of the time.”
Meanwhile, while BSNL alleges that due to low voltage the BSNL is unable to give proper coverage the Electricity Department claims that there is no such issue of low voltage in Billyground’s mobile towers. On one hand the public are suffering due to poor network connectivity on the other hand responsible departments are busy in blame game.
