Delhi:
Delhi has been put on hold. While the Capital is gearing up for the CWG carnival, lakhs of phone lines across the city have gone silent. According to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the telecom giant that provides landline connectivity to a majority of households in Delhi, digging work in preparation for the Games has hit the network hard.
Delhi has been put on hold. While the Capital is gearing up for the CWG carnival, lakhs of phone lines across the city have gone silent. According to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), the telecom giant that provides landline connectivity to a majority of households in Delhi, digging work in preparation for the Games has hit the network hard.
"A budget of Rs 4.5 billion has been earmarked to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for providing communication facilities during the Commonwealth Games 2010, including a network for high definition broadcast and due to recent damages the work is getting affected as we cannot dig and lay cables," the officials said pointing out that the civic agencies are not allowing them to dig roads to rectify the down lines.
A case in point is Sadar Bazaar. Traders of Asia's largest market are planning a mass protest by burning MTNL landline phones outside the local MTNL office today. Tired of the apathy on the part of the telecom service provider causing loss in business and raising security concerns, local businessmen have decided to take matters into their own hands. The market had set up a monitoring network of static IP and 16 CCTV cameras a few months back but even that connection is down for the last 20 days as the broadband network is not working.
According to the traders the market has been badly hit because of the disconnection of thousands of lines in the area.
"Every second trader is complaining about their fixed phone and Internet not working for over a month now. Neither are the MTNL officials restoring the service, nor are they registering complaints. There is a huge mobile network problem at Sadar Bazaar due to narrow lanes so we are compelled to maintain landlines. MTNL is only option in the area as no other private operator provides services. It is a huge problem because we can't receive orders or communicate with anyone. If any untoward incident happens we will not be able to contact emergency services," said Pawan Kumar, President of Sadar Bazaar Traders' Association.
"The market association had applied for an IP address on an MTNL telephone (011-23611166) which is a 40-year-old connection. The line was linked-up with the IP address to the connection at people's homes so that we could scrutinise the footage from16 CCTV cameras that were installed at the market, two years ago. But now due to this problem at MTNL our CCTV cameras are useless. We have mailed to the area manager but no action has been taken so far. MTNL hasn't been cooperating as this number goes dead every month.
In July-August it was out of order for fifteen days. Now it has been lying useless since the last week of August. Even complaints can't be registered as the computerised system says the cable is faulty and will be rectified in a few days but nothing happens," said Sushil Aggarwal, Vice-President, Sadar Bazaar Bari Market Traders' Association.
"We are trying to make use of technology by getting this static IP system. So many untoward incidents happen here every day. We want to protect the market from terrorist attacks and even smaller crimes like robbery etc. If any such incident occurs, we can watch it from our place and take necessary action, instead of coming over. But now the camera is not working, neither are the phones. So we have decided to protest so that officials at MTNL take notice of our plea. We will burn our landline phones as they are of no use without connection," said Paramjit Singh Pamma, Vice-President of the Sadar Bazar Barri Market Traders' Association.
However, civic authorities have a different story to narrate. They say that widespread digging of roads by agencies such as MTNL and NDPL to lay cables has been hampering their beautification work for CWG.
The MCD has been facing this problem while working on road-widening and other projects near some Games venues.
"We will file criminal cases against agencies that are digging roads illegally, without permission and without submitting the required revenue money to us," said Jagdish Mamgain, Chairman, MCD Works Committee.
STRIKE CALLThe non-executive employees union of the state-run MTNL said last week it might decide to go on strike during Commonwealth games next month, if the management tries to cut jobs. The company has been designated as the official telecom service provider for Commonwealth Games 2010, to be held in Delhi, and it has already received Rs 182 crore from the government for providing infrastructure.
MTNL, which provides services in Delhi and Mumbai, has over 43,000 employees. Of this, about 36,000 employees are in the non-executive category and over 7,000 are executives. Concerned over huge wage bills eating into its revenues, MTNL is understood to have approached the government for reportedly laying off up to two-thirds of its workforce. The company spent Rs 717 crore as staff costs for retirement benefits during the quarter ended June 30, 2010. MTNL incurred a loss of Rs 451 crore for the quarter.
GOING WIRELESS
As per data provided by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the landline service subscriber base declined from 39.41 million at the end of March 2008 to 37.96 million at the end of March 2009. The subscriber base further showed a decline of one million with 36.96 millions landline users at the end of March 2010.
At the end July 2010 landline subscriber stood at 35.96 million subscribers with landline teledensity of 3.04 per cent.
Reasons for decline
The booming business of mobile phones/wireless communication has been inversely proportional to the decline of landline services.
Mobile phones not only enable communication on the go but offer better and innovative tariff plans, than those offered by the landline services provider, due to the intense competition.