Disruption of BSNL Internet services has kept customers away from cyber cafes for the past two weeks. A Telegraph picture

Dibrugarh, June 2: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd?s trouble-ridden Internet service is logging out subscribers before they can log in.

Officials of the Dibrugarh Subsidiary Switching Area (SSA), which operates BSNL?s Internet service in the district, seem to have no answer for the continuous disruptions over the past two weeks. Subscribers, who use the service for activities ranging from booking air tickets to checking examination results, have repeatedly complained of being unable to access sites because of poor connectivity. Banking operations in the district have been affected, too.

The Dibrugarh SSA?s reach extends from Sepon in Sivasagar district to Chapakhowa in Sadiya subdivision of Tinsukia.

?There is some problem in Guwahati or perhaps in Calcutta. We are trying to check it,? is the BSNL?s standard response to enquiries from harried subscribers.

?There has been a sharp decline in our customer footfall. We have been complaining to the BSNL authorities, but nothing has been done to improve the service. The story is the same in Tinsukia district,? a cyber caf? owner said.

With most examination results and college admission details being posted on the Internet, students have been making a beeline for cyber caf?s, only to return frustrated. ?I am trying to get the details of various educational institutions in Delhi and Pune through the net for the last three days, but have not been able to access the sites. The speed is very slow here,? said Nelakshi Gogoi, who passed her HS exams this year.

Sources in the BSNL headquarters here complained of an acute shortage of staff. ?We are running the SSA with only 40 per cent of the required staff. There are around 60 vacancies for the posts of junior telecom officers and all three posts of deputy general managers are lying vacant. This has adversely affected our Internet and mobile services,? a senior official said.

Posts of junior telecom officers have remained vacant because Indian Telecom Service officers allegedly refuse to stay and work in Dibrugarh, a source said.

?A section of Indian Telecom Service officers still think negatively about this part of the country, which is why they are often reluctant to work here ,? he added.

This might be one of the reasons why the BSNL?s massive expansion plans in the two districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia have failed to take off.