Data slowdowns: Citizenspeak

With laptop-like functionality on palm-sized smartphones, hardly anyone uses their handsets only for making calls.

Checking emails, reading the headlines, ordering food, groceries, booking tickets- everything is done on-the-go using data connections. But are Bengaluru citizens happy with the connectivity they get?

Pradyumna Panikker, a third year B Arch student living in Banashankari uses 2G  on his phone, mostly for messaging and to read articles on the internet.

“With the kind of speed I get in my area, I can’t use it for much else. For that I have my WiFi connection.” he says. His friends who use 3G often complain that it is too slow. “Ours is a remote area, so most services do not have good connectivity.”

Often, people do not get the service they have paid for. “I have subscribed for 3G but in a lot of places, even within my college, I only get 2G network”, says MVL Manikantan, an MBA student living in Electronic City. An ardent cricket follower, he adds, “I use ESPN Cric info for cricket updates but the app does not load properly without 3G.”

PU Bopanna, Managing Director of a construction firm, uses mobile internet for conducting his business. “The connectivity is not good everywhere in the city. I just had a meeting with a client in M G Road. I needed to download some graphics and pictures for the presentation but I was unable to, because of poor network.”

He surmises that the problem may be due to overloading as there is a very large population of internet users. Connectivity problem while travelling is very common. Chetana Sarpamale, an IT professional, says: “I get 3G network where I live in Whitefield. But when I travel within the City, it gets problematic.”

A growing number of people are now using 4G network. Manek Singh Kohli, a student from Pune who is in the city for an internship, uses a 4G dongle. He says, “I get connectivity everywhere but in some places the signal is weak. 3G works perfectly fine.” Shruti Ranade agrees that the 4G connectivity is good in the city. “I get speeds of up to 20 Mbps.”

A software engineer, she uses 2G data on her phone for messaging, social networking and maps. Adds Ranade, “I was getting a decent service earlier. I could use maps even on 2G. But  lately, I have been having connectivity issues.”