BHARAT BHUSHAN
JAMMU, Oct 10: BSNL subscribers in J&K are definitely not a happy lot as the network coverage of India's largest communication service provider (CSP) continues to be as bad as it has always been across the state even as it has a vast network of mobile phone towers and an army of staff to deal with the issue.
"The subscriber is not reachable" is the response one often gets while calling a customer of any CSP from a BSNL number here.
"BSNL network has become totally unreliable," said Vijay Kumar Gupta, a sales executive with a company.
"Whenever, I go to the Jammu's remote areas, or even the villages which are not far from the city in connection with my work, I face network problem," he added.
Vijay said though he had a BSNL number, he was compelled to buy the SIM of a private company also. "I am now planning to surrender the BSNL number," he added.
Like him, Surinder Mahajan of Gandhi Nagar also plans to get rid of his BSNL number because of the poor network coverage.
All of them feel that a possible nexus between BSNL and private CSPs could be the reason behind the bad, or continuously deteriorating BSNL network.
There are many others who feel like this. "If BSNL loses customers, its loss would be the gain of private players in the field," they opined.
"Where BSNL network fails, the signal of private CSPs remains intact. Why so, when BSNL is better equipped in terms of staff and machinery," they questioned, suspecting that some BSNL officials might not be focussing on improving service quality to benefit the private players.
The BSNL subscribers in Kishtwar, Doda, Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri, Basohli, Billawar, Rajouri, Poonch and parts of Kashmir are too irked over poor signal and subsequent interruption of cellphone communication.
"The service is not worth the money we pay against the monthly bills," they said and demanded its privatisation, or immediate improvement of the quality of service.
"The signal often disappears from the screens of our mobile phones ever since the private CSPs have started providing services in Bhaderwah tehsil of Doda," Irshad, who is president of Zamindar Communication Association, said.
Mansoor Qadir said he had a WLL connection but it mostly remained unused because of poor signal.
Qayoom Bhagwan, a senior Bhaderwah resident, said he had to buy the SIM of a private company due to poor BSNL coverage.
Shabir Ahmad Ganai, Zafarullah Bhat and Tariq Ganai too expressed their unhappiness over the bad BSNL network connectivity.
A senior BSNL officer, however, attributed the problem to power interruptions and frequent technical faults.
In reply to a query, he said though there were batteries and diesel generator (DG) sets for the mobile phone towers to function whenever the power was off, these were not being used by the staff.
"This is another reason for bad network. This, however, needs to be looked into why the DG sets are not put into use even when the department supplies enough oil to the staff at tower stations," the officer, who did not want to be quoted, said.
Asked if he meant to say that the oil was being sold in black by the concerned staff, he preferred to remain mum.
He said the network problem in Udhampur, Doda, Bhaderwah, Ramban and Kishtwar was due to the damages that BSNL cables were suffering almost daily because of the widening of Nandini-Udhampur stretch of the national highway.
The officer said due to the poor cellphone connectivity, BSNL had been losing customers.
The story does not end there as the internet users, who earn their livelihood from the service provided by BSNL, are also hard hit by this problem.
The officer claimed that remedial measures were underway to improve the quality of the service.
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