Ranchi, Oct. 3: Subscribers of the BSNL Mobile had yet another harrowing experience as the network crashed for 18 hours. Officials cited technical snags in Patna as the reason for the crash.
The problem started last night at about 9 pm when the network collapsed. The network could be restored only at 3 pm today.
“My entire day was wasted as I could not make any calls from my mobile and suffered considerable losses,” said a city-based businessman, adding that “we are dependent on communication modes and any disturbance affects our day-to-day functioning.”
A senior BSNL official said the trouble stemmed from a technical snag in Patna. “The optical fibre cable in Patna snapped That paralysed the entire system here. The fault could be rectified only this morning and finally the network could be restored at 3 pm,” the official said.
After the grand launch six months back, network failure has been a recurring problem for BSNL Mobile subscribers. This has considerably eroded the credibility of the communication major. According to officials, most of the time it is due to technical snags in Patna.
“I don’t know what is the problem with these BSNL people. Network failure has become a regular feature. Many times, I did not receive calls because of this. They are talking of “Cell One” and giving auto-roaming facilities to other places. But if you cannot provide a good network even within the city, there is no point talking big.
Their rivals are much better as far as connectivity is concerned,” said another subscriber.
“Bihar and Jharkhand come under pilot project. The process of amalgamating this with the main project is on. This causes problems with the network. We are in the transition phase and are moving towards sophistication. The fault which surfaced last night has been rectified and I hope there will be no such complaints in future,” the official added.
The official, however, claimed that the BSNL is going ahead with its project to cover all the 18 (old) districts of Jharkhand. “The work is going on in full swing and by March 2003, all the 18 districts will come under the mobile network. Work is also underway to install base transmission stations along the national highways and is likely to be completed by this year end,” the official.
According to the official, nine cities will be covered in the “Cell One” project which aims at connecting 350 cities of the country through the mobile network. Prime minister A.B. Vajpayee is scheduled to inaugurate the project on October 19.
Earlier, this was to be launched on October 2, but was postponed due to unavoidable reasons. He admitted that the frequent network failures were a loss of face for the company. But he promised that the problems would soon be taken care of.
