Issue of low bandwidth and poor internet connectivity in Nagaland would soon to be a word of past as BSNL is all set to operationalise 10G Guwahati-Dimapur Wireline system from the end of July, Bharat Bhushan Verma, DGM, NE Circle-II, BSNL, said on Wednesday.
“With TDS’ 10G network, the “G” refers to capacity—10 gigabits per second (or 10 billion bits). This does not mean that every TDS customer has a 10G Internet pipe connected to their house though. TDS’ 10G network is the ‘backbone network’ that connects TDS markets to each other, to our data centres, and to the Internet. TDS’ 10G network enables services like TDS TV, managed IP Hosted, and high-speed residential and commercial Internet service,” Verma said while speaking to Nagaland Post.
“You can’t compare wireless 3G/4G to TDS’ 10G network. For many, understanding the differences between Internet networks can be confusing. There’s 3G, 4G, and at TDS, 10G,” Verma also said.
Internet connectivity to Nagaland has been highly unstable, even after BSNL provides high speed net from Bangladesh-based Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL) bandwidth from Cox Bazar in southeast Bangladesh from March 23.
The main wire link that travels nearly 2,000 km through the ecologically sensitive zone to connect the landing station in Kolkata, remains inoperative for half of the year. Presently, BSNL is providing internet service to the region through Bangaluru-Guwahati wired line. The net is slow due to technical bottlenecks such as rusty or loose overhead copper wire connections.
Net surfers in Nagaland have been living through a virtual nightmare. A surfer has to wait, fret and fume for the slow connectivity. Even if one is lucky to be connected to the web, the data flow is so slow that it’s enough to give headaches. “Net connectivity in Nagaland is really pathetic. Not to talk of the rural areas but in Dimapur and Kohima do not even get 2G. We pay for 3G and 4G but we hardly get service of 2G,” said Pakinzinliu Chawang, a regular net user and lecturer in English of Tetso College here.
BSNL is the largest net provider of the region. Considering slow connectivity and increasing number of subscribers of the region, BSNL is upgrading two wired routes Guwahati-Dimapur via Nagaon and Guwahati-Dimapur via Silchar.
“By the end of July, all works will be completed. The internet connectivity in Nagaland will be as good as in metros such as Delhi and Mumbai with the improvement of the two routes. This will also result in faster speeds and improved services in Nagaland, Arunachal and Manipur,” Verma further said.
“Once this facility is started, the entire internet service, be it landline, lease line or mobile network, we shall be able to give stable connectivity. The connectivity of existing wifi and wimax will also be stable,” he added.
A present, BSNL has two kinds of net users-(i) wired and (ii) wireless. BSNL NE Circle –II provides net connection to 1.5 lakh wired users of Nagaland, 2.7 lakh of Arunachal and 2.7 lakh of Manipur. The number of wireless subscribers is 5,000 in Nagaland, 7,000 in Manipur and 7,700 in Manipur. “As regards to wireless users, the speed limit of internet goes down to ¼ after 50 per cent usage of the limit. However, the speed will be same for the users having unlimited space,” he said.
“In view of increasing number of customers, BSNL is planning to build three wired routes to Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh instead of one route operational at present,” he said.
“Limited bandwidth and high demand for Internet services are to blame for slow net. But we usually overload the network as we allow more subscribers to log in,” Verma said.
It may be mentioned that internet speed of the private Internet providers is also not up to the mark. There are five private users, Airtel, Aircel, Reliance, SymBios and Idea providing wireless service in the state. But the speed is not above the expectations.