Disruptions hit N-E Internet services
By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Nov 25 - It is now almost five years since the Internet service
was launched first in Assam then in other North East states. Still, for the
common user, logging in is hardly as smooth as it should have been.
"Web-page can't be found," "connection with the server can't be
established" are the two phrases that haunt the Internet users in the
region day in and day out. Although there has been a rapid growth in the
netizen population in the region during the last few years, the Internet
service has not improved.
Frequent disruptions in the connectivity has demoralised the lot of
Internet cafe owners in the region, most of who are well-educated first
generation entrepreneurs. "Frequent disruption in connections result in fat
telephone bills at the end of the month which has been a bane for us.
Moreover, we have to digest the caustic remarks from the aggrieved
customers (internet users) for no fault of us," says Nikunja Sharma, a
cyber cafe owner in the city. All the internet service provider in the
region have failed to improve the data transfer speed at a consistent level
to minimise the agony of the users who are hit by wastage of money, time
and energy due to below per Internet service available in the region.
The main problem is the frequent variation of the bandwidth provided by
the various Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It is a case of giving a
larger number of connections that are not in proportion to the bandwidth
available. This leads to either very low data transfer speed or frequent
disruptions at the expense of the user. The ISPs here have miserably failed
to maintain the data transfer speed measured in bits per second (BPS) as
promised by them while giving a connection to a user. In fact, in view of
fast increasing netizen population there is urgent need on part of the ISPs
to enhance there infrastructure to improve the quality of service bringing
it to at least the level prevalent in the rest of the country.
However, the ISPs seem to be oblivious of the need. A cross section of
cyber-cafe owners in the city alleged that recently a private ISP claimed
to have installing 'extra line' to boost the data transfer speed while
increasing the monthly connection fees. However, the speed has 'decreased'
instead of getting increased. Unless the connectively problems that are
dogging Internet service in the region, are not removed the Central
government's ambitious project to put the landlocked North Eastern region
in the global IT map through the newly set up Computer Information Centres
(CICs) will never take off.
