The services of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are very poor since last few months. The government telecom and broadband service provider’s respond to its consumer is also very poor. It is the largest provider of landline and broadband service in India. Especially BSNL has a strong network in rural Odisha. BSNL broadband has no alternate in Odisha though there are many private players in the market. But unfortunately due to irresponsible and unprofessional management the largest telecom network’s credibility is in question.
The service of BSNL broadband is annoying its customer since last few months. It is going down and there is no effective management to restore the service. Customers are opting for other available services like AirTel etc. We investigated about it.
The AGM of Bargarh says, in Sambalpur Telecom circle, total 10 telephone exchanges are not functioning properly since last June. Out of the 10 telephone exchanges 3 are from Bargarh district and remaining 7 are from Sambalpur and Deogarh. In Bargarh, Gaisilat, Katapali and Jharbandh exchanges are defunct due to damage of ARC card. The ARC card of the motherboard has got damaged in these exchanges. According to the AGM, they have sent those to Bhubaneswar for repairing. Now 4 months have passed but the ARC cards have not been repaired and fixed. Due to this technical problem, landlines are totally not functioning. The broadband service is partially functioning but sometime it is not available for many days. The connectivity problem is persistently irritating the consumers. Apart from this, the speed of the broadband has also decreased.
Further, the AGM was inquired about when the service will be restored and he says, it will be fixed within 7 days. But 15 days have passed and yet the services are not available. We further contacted the SDO Padampur and he informed us very contradictory way that the AGM is not reliable. Again we talked with some other low level workers in BSNL, they say, the senior officers at Sambalpur and Bhubneswar are knowingly doing this. They are taking bribe from the private players and responsible for the down of BSNL.
In the mean time the Government of India has announced many lucrative plans for the customer to compete the private players in the market but all are in the vein due to corruption.