OUR STAFF CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG, July 7: It’s official that the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) under the present guidelines will not be able to extend its mobile services to the commercially non-viable areas along the vulnerable fringes of the intertiol borders. These areas encompassed the stretches along Indo-Chi, Indo-Myanmar and Indo-Bangladesh borders of the North eastern region.
Chief General Mager of BSNL North eastern Circle One D. P Singh said that there were cries that the BSNL should extend the mobile services network to these security sensitive unreached areas but the guidelines laid is on profit.
“We were everywhere in the country till we turned into a government of India public enterprise and presently profitable money alone is a guiding force for us to expand our network”, stated Singh, even as he divulged that there has been an interim arrangement to provide satellite phones to the frontier guards that cost Rs 5 a minute.
Making it clear that BSNL (NER-1), as a corporate body is not in a position to venture into unprofitable areas in spite of the consistent letters from the security agencies manning the intertiol border, Singh however confided that a survey has been carried out on how to provide the feeding mobile networks to the border areas.
“The survey has been carried out and it is up to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to give the nod”, the CGMT stated while alluding to complaints that there are some areas that are receiving sigls from the Chinese or Bangladesh cellular phone providers.
It may be mentioned that the frontier guards (BSF) are also unofficially using Bangladeshi mobile phone services in the border areas to reach to the bosses in their respective headquarters in the three states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura.