BSNL upgrade drive: Locals flag anomalies

Our Correspondent

Kullu, March 15

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is converting the copper landline connections into fibre connections without any charges. Kullu BSNL SDO Rajesh Goyal said there were directions to change all the existing landline connections to the fibre network before March 31.

Inefficeint during power cuts

The fibre connections don't work without electricity and require a power backup source. There were frequent power cuts and changing to fibre connections would result in loss of connectivity during power cuts. — Ravi, consumer

He said the Optical Network Terminal (ONT) would be provided free of cost to the existing consumers and it would be installed through a vendor. He said the low cost plan for the fiber connection would be Rs 353 per month and this would include unlimited free voice calls to any other network in India and complimentary 20 GB data at the speed of 10Mbps.

Ravi, a consumer, said the BSNL landline was very convenient as the telephones were operational even without electricity. He said the fibre connections don’t work without electricity and require a power backup source. He added that there were frequent power cuts and changing to fibre connections would result in loss of connectivity during power cuts. Another user said some equipment like POS terminals, Facsimile etc. work with the existing connections and not the fibre connections.

A travel agent, Atishaye, said in 2014 Kullu town remained powerless for around 8 days as the power lines to Kullu were damaged due to snowfall and the landline connections had facilitated the communication during that time. He said BSNL should continue to provide the existing copper network landline facility till they develop a way to provide uninterrupted landline services through the fibre network even in case of power failures. He added that in tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti, the power is remains down for months and the BSNL landline was the only source of communication. He said bundling up the copper network for landlines would increase the difficulties of the tribal areas.

A resident, Vivek, said he already had a fibre network of another company and it was not worthwhile to have another fibre connection. He added that he did not want to lose the existing BSNL landline number as it would affect his business.

Another resident said his present plan of landline number costs him Rs 1,770 annually, but changing it to fibre would cost him Rs 4,236 annually. He said that in the present era of competition, while other telecom companies were providing cheaper options, the BSNL was forcing its customers to dole out more money. He said the government should start portability of landline numbers as well so that the consumers were not bound to abide by the dictates of the BSNL.

He added that cheaper plans were being offered by the BSNL for mobile users, but the company was enforcing to levy hefty charges on the existing landline users with not much options.

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