Nov. 22: Tata Teleservices’ Internet access service subscribers here are a worried lot. They have no clue whether they would get their Photon device cost refunded or be left in the lurch after the company packs up and leaves the state in January.

The company, which provides wireless Internet access through its Tata Photon and Tata Photon+ services, recently announced its decision to opt out of the fresh bidding process and not renew its licences in three circles of Assam, Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.

It charged it customers anything between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 for a Photon wireless Internet dongle.

Pankaj Roy of Ulubari, who uses Tata Photon+ to connect to the Internet, is confused. “After I heard on TV the news that Tata Teleservices will be shutting down operations here in January, I visited a customer service point of the company to ask whether I would be getting a refund. The executives there said they did not know whether the company would refund the money or not.”

“As the company is closing down its services, it should refund the money because we would no longer be able to use the Tata Photon+ device for accessing the Internet. We have no other option but to switch over to another service provider for no fault of ours. Hence, they should refund our money,” Roy added.

Bikram Dutta, another user from Silpukhuri, complained that the customer service points of the company were not assisting them in switching over. “The mobile phone customers of the company can switch over to other service providers because of the mobile number portability system but if we want to switch, we will have to buy another device. Hence, we demand that Tata Teleservices should refund the money it charged for the device. We are getting repeated messages about our bills but when we ask about the refund, the executives say they are also in the dark.”

Executives at a Tata Teleservices customer service centre at Ulubari said they had no information yet about refund of the device cost. “We have been informed that the company will provide us information about these queries in December. We are receiving 50-60 queries daily but right now we are not in a position to tell the customers anything,” an executive said.

Suroor Hussain, the corporate communication manager of Tata Teleservices, told The Telegraph that all their services would be shut down in the Northeast, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir circles from January following the Supreme Court verdict resulting in cancellation of its licences. “I am not in a position to tell you exactly whether the consumers’ Internet connection device cost would be refunded or not,” he said.