Government plans free internet, when quality lacks for those who pay for it
Mumbai.A lot of government’s have grandiose plans of cities being connected with free internet. However quality internet is not even available to paying customers as infrastructure and bandwidth are just not there. Private companies and Govt owned companies offer tall promises and make you buy their overpriced equipment and then when internet is accessed it is always below par. There are regular speed problems and loss of signals.
The charges are same notwithstanding the constant outages. Internet users have grown, so speed is down, is the common excuse if you ask the robots in the call centres. In case of breakdown, private companies are as bad as the government companies in terms of restoring it. 48 hours is the normal number you can hear from the robots from centre voices. BSNL/MTNL will go an extra mile and will not work on holidays in case of an outage. They come on their usual government timings and restore it after many chai biscuit formalities in the office. Over the years the digital India has shaped up from bad to worse.
Gandhi Vichar Manch’s Chairman Manmohan Gupta says, “More than 80% of Mumbai uses internet on computers and mobile. To open a website on mobile sometimes takes hours together. Be it 2G or 3 G, the results are equally bad. Even after bandwidth sale and huge profits to the government, the situation is same on the ground. The government requires making a study and rectifying this.”