Guwahati, Oct. 1: The chief general manager of BSNL, Assam, G. Rajaram, said at a news conference today that 499 cases of damage caused to optical fibre cables across the state have been reported in the past year. But the culprits have yet to be nabbed.

“It is really difficult for the telecom authorities when this is the extent of damage,” Rajaram said, observing that the problem had taken shape over the past year.

He said the Lakhimpur-Dhemaji section had been the worst affected, with as many as three cable cuts in three days.

“We are taking bandwidth from other agencies like Power Grid Corporation and Oil India Limited to meet customer requirements,” he said.

The BSNL’s optical fibre cable network has been extended from 1,000km to 4,000km in seven years.

The telecom major’s Assam circle is in the process of adding three lakh mobile connections with a view to improve teledensity.

The national teledensity average is 22 for every hundred people, while for Assam it is 11.

Rajaram said more base transceiver stations were being set up to improve coverage in the border areas. All district headquarters and commercial towns in Assam are set to get broadband Internet on WLL.

The total investment in the state in the last seven years has been Rs 1,100 crore.

Rajaram also announced that BSNL was ready to provide virtual private network covering landlines and cellphones to its customers in Assam.

This is a service specifically designed to facilitate business and government functioning allowing long-duration voice calls at no extra cost.