Mobile network in shambles in Poonch 
Shariq Majeed
Tribune News Service

Poonch, December 19
If you are in this border township and want to make a call to someone from your mobile phone, it will take you not less than half-an-hour to get connected -- courtesy the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) -- the sole mobile phone operator here that is troubling people.
Despite having a proud tagline, "Connecting India", the BSNL claiming to provide best mobile phone services in the country, has taken the subscribers here for a ride.
Residents complain that BSNL's mobile service is so poor that most of the times the network is busy.
“The mobile network here is so poor that it takes hours to make a call. On many occasions, we lodged severe protests, but the authorities do little to rectify the problem,” said Aejaz Ahmed, a resident. "The authorities have different excuses for poor connectivity here. Mostly they say that since the number of subscribers is high, the system is overloaded. They also attribute poor connectivity to the increasing number of intra-state roaming subscribers coming here and limited number of channels."
Even about a fortnight back, National Conference president Omar Abdullah, while addressing an election rally here, had expressed disappointment over the poor mobile phone connectivity in this region.
At present, the BSNL has two towers in this border township, one at Dalera, "Dalera 1" and other near here, "Dalera 2". The number of mobile subscribers here is more than five thousand. Sources said BSNL was facing shortage of channels, which results in poor connectivity. They did not rule out the existence of a nexus between some STD owners and BSNL employees here.
"Though BSNL is facing shortage of channels here, yet there are reports that there exists a nexus between its employees and STD owners. Since the STD owners operate hundreds of STDs, they with the help of a local mediaperson, run a nexus with some BSNL employees who shut down the mobile network so that the STD owners do good business", sources added.
Telecom district engineer (TDE), Rajouri-Poonch, M.L.Raina admitted the mobile connectivity in Poonch town is not satisfactory. "There is problem with the connectivity in Poonch town. However, we are upgrading the system and increasing the channels that will improve the connectivity," he assured.
As regards the existence of nexus between some BSNL employees and the STD owners, TDE refuted the allegations and termed them "baseless".