SRINAGAR: One such user is Muhammad Younis, whose smartphone is gathering dust at a shelf in his home. Younis cannot access his phone since he found that the password he has locked his phone with does not work anymore.
“I get a message to connect to internet for unlocking it. But since internet is blocked, there is no possibility that it can be unlocked anytime soon,” he said.
He forget the password because the phone was not used for nearly two months. When post-paid services were restored a week ago, Younis switched on his phone, but to no avail.
Users who developed a software glitch in their phone are also finding it difficult to make use of them. Their efforts to get them repaired has reaped them no benefit because of internet blockade.
A businessman Hakeem Yasen has been looking for smartphone repair shop, which did not function when he switched it on the day the government allowed post-paid service. Yasen told Kashmir Reader that he had searched all the service centres to get his phone working, but to no avail.
“At all the places I was told that it cannot be repaired without internet,” he said.
Now Younis and Hakeem, both of whom are businessmen and have to deal with their suppliers in India, have switched to simple phones that allows only phone calling.
Mufti Rouf, a phone software engineer, said the users are facing these difficulties because smartphones have been designed to get linked up with email for better and faster internet experience. He said this integration is must without which phones cannot be accessed.
President of Kashmir Cellular Association, Aijaz Ahmad, said that users have to face these issues till internet is restored.
“They have to wait for internet. Whenever we have opened shops, we get more customers looking for repairing their phones then those seeking for new ones,” he said.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz