Act or face music, Ukhrul tells mobile service provider
Source: The Sangai Express / Addie Chiphang

Ukhrul, August 22 2010: Fed up and with patience running out over the erratic mobile service in Ukhrul district, scores of organizations have warned mobile service provider Airtel not to take the consumers of Ukhrul for granted and to get its act going or face the music.

Airtel which launched its Ukhrul service sometime in mid-January 2009 has not lived upto its name with its signal down most of the time, inconveniencing the customers no end.

In fact so acute is the problem, that the Floor Manager of Ukhrul Airtel service provider has joined the ranks of the disappointed and annoyed customers.

In an exclusive talk with The Sangai Express, Floor Manager, Wungtech Airtel , Khamung Mashangva, said that at present Airtel has over 20,000 low and high end users in the district.

A state of the art mobile tower giving excellent service

During the last 5 to 6 months the service provided by the mobile telephony company has been abysmal due to a mechanical snag at tower number 1 at Phungreitang.

Elaborating, Mashangva said that the snag is all due to the faulty construction of slabs to hold the Diesel generator leading to immense damages to portions of the building.

Subsequently the owner appealed to the authority and the State Manager and Infratel Manager of Airtel along with their staff examined the site in the mid March 2010 and an assurance was given that everything would be in order within 30 days but nothing has been done till date, Khamung added.

A kilometer away from tower number 1 is tower number 2 at Wino Bazar, which was fully operational till March 9, 2009 .

However, it was razed to the ground in the Wino Fire inferno, the deadlist of its kind, in decades at Ukhrul.

There was also no full time caretaker to look after the tower consisting the generator and Base Transceiver Station, where the generator was kept in switch on mode from 5.30/6 am to 6 pm/7 pm without any break.

Travelling another 40 km South of Ukhrul lies Litan where another tower has come up.

The tower was kept in switch off mode from 12 noon to 4 everyday from May to 3rd week of July 2010 .

On being queried, the floor manager said that this matter had been repeatedly apprised through verbal and written complaints, but nothing positive has come out so far.

Consequently, this has angered the subscribers, retailers and rural distributers who are also a partner of Airtel leading to loss of business ground to other service provider in the district, in fact the credibility of Airtel has come up for serious questioning, he added.

Explaining that, though Airtel boasts 180 million subscribers and is ranked the world fifth largest telecom service provider, in the world, the earning revenue has dipped by 60 percent leaving its partners in Ukhrul in the cold.

The authority from 'Modrina's Circle Office North East India,' has already sought an explanation for the dip in revenue earning from Ukhrul and this shows that Airtel North East circle office are in the dark about the happenings in Ukhrul district which was created by some handful of vested persons, the Manager rued.

Further maintaining that on behalf of all those who are tirelessly working in realizing the goal of Airtel and those coping with the problem of Airtel network the manager has drawn the attention of the authority to take up immediate work to restore the Airtel Network service.

Not long back, the Tangkhul Mayar Ngala Long had given a stern warning to private service provider like Airtel for their erratic network service cautioning them to pull up their socks or face expulsion from Ukhrul.

Now, the Hunphun Katamnao Long has also chipped in and is ready to go take up its own course of action if immediate necessary action for better service is not initiated.