Cellphone technology put landline phones in coma. Now, poor BSNL services seem to be hastening their demise.
At least 3,000 telephone and broadband connections in Mango and Parsudih are snapped for years, courtesy never-ending digging for various civic projects - from road widening to pipe-laying.
Landline connections in other parts of Jamshedpur are also disturbed due to poor maintenance.
Deteriorating service has triggered a surge in Kolhan subscribers surrendering their phones.
In April 2008, the BSNL's Jamshedpur SSA had 1,00,391 connections but now the number has come down to 40,397.
Even in May 2016, there were 42,486 connections in BSNL's Jamshedpur secondary switching area (SSA) that covers East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.
In January 2017 alone, 632 subscribers bid goodbye to the telecom operator.
Bandhgaon in West Singhbhum has no BSNL subscriber at present because all switched to cellphones or private operators, a source said.
Former subscribers said why they were disgruntled.
"I had a landline connection for four decades but for the past six months the telephone was not working. I kept the connection as it had been installed by my grandfather. I had to pay the bills without enjoying the service. Last month I surrendered the connection," said Shushil Agrawal of Parsudih.
Similarly, Saroj Singh of Mango also surrendered his BSNL telephone recently.
"Since the past four months my telephone was lying defunct. I had complained many times but it went unheard," said a frustrated Singh.
When asked, Sanjeev Verma, BSNL general manager, Jamshedpur SSA, said there were connection problems in Mango and Parsudih, but claimed the telecom service in the rest of the areas was fine. "Road widening and pipe laying works are going on in Mango and Parsudih. Due to the ongoing projects, optical fibres have been damaged at number of points in both the areas, causing disturbances in the connection. Once the projects are over, we will repair the damaged cables," he added.
The BSNL's Jamshedpur SSA has 86 exchanges. Fifty exchanges fall in urban areas - Jamshedpur, Jadugora, Ghatshila, Chakradharpur, Chaibasa and Adityapur - and the rest in rural areas.
