Jahangeer Ganaie
Shopian, Nov 9: For the very first time, a village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district got proper mobile network connectivity.
The residents of Bandpawa village in Chitragam Tehsil of Shopian have heaved a sigh of relief as Jio has commissioned a tower in the area this week.
The subscribers of private telecommunication companies like Jio and Airtel and government telecommunication company BSNL have been complaining about erratic calling and internet services for several years.
Sameer Ahmad Bhat, a local resident said that they were unable to make any calls even during emergencies and were “virtually living in the Dark Ages”.
“Most of the work in the modern era is done on mobile phones, but in the absence of proper connectivity, we were unable to do anything on the phone and had to visit offices even for minor tasks,” he said.
Nadeem, another local, said, “While the world was witnessing 5G internet connectivity, we were without even basic cellular connectivity. Students have suffered a lot in the last two to three years as they faced problems attending online classes. They had to go to nearby areas in search of mobile connectivity to attend their classes. Now they won’t face such problems as the Jio tower has been made functional.”
The locals said that after repeated requests to the administration, Jio started work on installing the tower, and it has now been commissioned.
An official said that a Jio tower was installed in the area after locals repeatedly requested it. “The tower was made functional this week, and network issues in the area are now resolved,” he said.
