Poor quality of BharatNet services mars experience for rural users

Last year, when 36-year-old Praveen Deshpande, an employee at a software company in Bengaluru, was offered the option to work from home following the outbreak of the pandemic, he was happy as he could spend some time with his parents at Akkatanagerahal village in Gokak taluk of Belagavi district. He immediately travelled to his village and started enquiring about a broadband connection and was disappointed to learn that the broadband connectivity in his village was quite poor.

"I ultimately had to drop the idea of broadband and instead avail a wireless USB dongle from a private telecom company after many of my friends complained of poor connectivity and service issues with the broadband," says Praveen.

Similarly in Koliwad village in Dharwad district, only the gram panchayat office and a handful of houses have broadband connections as the speed offered through broadband and mobile data/dongles is almost similar.

"I have to shell out somewhere around Rs 700 per month for the BSNL broadband connection while I can get mobile data by private companies offering the same speed at almost Rs 1,000 for three months. Why will someone pay more for the same speed? Also, mobile data/dongles are handy and can be used from any place as compared to broadband," said Dyamappa (name changed), a gram panchayat member.

Not just Akkatanagerahal and Koliwad, in many villages and gram panchayats in Karnataka, the broadband (high-speed internet) facility under BharatNet, the rural broadband connectivity programme using optical fibre, has not gone beyond the panchayat office due to various reasons.

Take, for instance, Doddamaluru in Tumakuru district and Sampaje in Dakshina Kannada district. Poor network and internet speed have become a norm even in the gram panchayat offices here and so, people naturally opt for private mobile data connections.

This is also the case in Madagalli, Ballari district, where the broadband connection is used only in gram panchayat office and it often gets disrupted due to technical problems which take days to repair.

Operation and maintenance

In villages like Salkani, Tarehalli-Kansur, Vajralli, Kannigeri and others in Uttara Kannada district which are located in geographically challenging areas like hilly terrain and forest areas, the speed is pretty good. But the major issue that these villages are facing is that of maintenance.

"Whenever there is some problem with the line, engineers concerned do not turn up on time. Sometimes, they take days together to fix it. In fact, the gram panchayat office is confused as to whom to contact in case of repairs as BSNL officers and technicians keep on shifting their responsibility. During such times, we again have to depend on mobile data," said the gram panchayat secretary of Kansur.

Speaking about the issue, Uttara Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Priyanga M said the problems with maintenance are constant as three organisations including BSNL are managing the broadband connection.

She added that some gram panchayats were even facing connectivity issues due to rough weather and terrain. Despite this, around 150 of around 210 gram panchayats in Uttara Kannada have functional broadband connections.

Lack of awareness

Apart from this, a lack of awareness on broadband and its advantages among the people was clearly evident during a survey conducted by DH.

"Hardly, anyone in my village knows if there is a broadband facility here. Just laying fibres is not enough. People must be informed about the facility. Private telecom companies literally go to door-steps to give connections, and so people know about the offers and benefits," says Harish Bendigeri of Holihosur village in Belagavi district who works as a special officer at Visvesvaraya Technological University.

Jayaprakash Hegde, a resident of Mavingundi coming under Halgeri gram panchayat near Jog Falls, says that private players were dominating the scene in their area.

"The number of mobile phone towers has increased over the years and it offers good speed at a fair price. So, many from our gram panchayat including my relatives have switched over to private networks. We are hardly aware of the broadband network now," he adds.