Internet & Mobile Network Failures in Mizoram irks CM

Aizawl, Oct 26 : Internet and mobile phone network failures are the order of the day in the remote Mizoram, where internet is an integral part of profession for quite a lot of people like in the rest of the world.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla highlighted the persistent connectivity problems in Mizoram at the 56th National Development Council meeting in New Delhi on Saturday last, attributing the problems mainly to the difficult topography of the state.

Laying optical fiber cables (OFP) is not viable because of frequent landslides and high incidence of damage through road construction activities, Mr Lal Thanhawla said.

Besides problem of connectivity from outside the state, communication system within the state is also very poor, he said.

Against the original decision to construct 72 USOF mobile telecommunication towers, only 37 towers have been constructed out of which about 22 towers could not be utilised due to the absence of backbone connectivity, he stated. Micro-based system had limitations because of geographical terrain and climatic condition like sudden bandwidth drop due to heavy rain with thick cloud.

V-SAT could hardly meet the requirement due to various reasons, he pointed out.

According to the Chief Minister, BSNL, which is the main service provider, having OFC as telecommunication backbone, is also not reliable as its network uptime is hardly 60 per cent.

Other service providers have similar problems because of poor connectivity from the main gateway, he said. BSNL, according to Mr Lal Thanhawla, is reluctant to sign service legal agreement (SLA) for Mizoram SWAN projects under NeGP because they cannot provide 99.8 per cent uptime connectivity.

Unreliable telecommunication infrastructure had prevented the state government from establishing software technology park, IT-enabled services/BPOs, call centres, medical transcription, telemedicine and various other internet-based activities, Mr Lal Thanhawla highlighted.

The Chief Minister suggested adoption of optical ground wire (OPGW) in place of OFC underground from Badarpur near Silchar (Assam) to Aizawl and from Aizawl to district headquarters, sub-divisional headquarters, block headquarters down to villages.

The concerned authorities in the ministry of communication and information technology may sit with state officials to revise the strategy of USOF and implementation plan by keeping in abeyance work order already issued including execution of work through RailTel Corporation of India Limited, Lal Thanhawla suggested.