Shopian: Jio consumers in south Kashmir’s Pulwama and central Kashmir’s Budgam district are facing inconvenience as towers installed in the areas long ago have not been made functional since years.
Danish Ahmad Hura, a local from Hanjan village of district Pulwama said that they are facing tough times in terms of network since more than a year and despite demonstrations their demands were not met.
“A tower was installed at Natib village more than a year ago to end the network woes but the tower was not made functional despite all works done,” he said.
Another consumer said that the problem was not similar a year ago but the Jio authorities reduced the bandwidth of the nearby towers which has resulted in creation of problems to the people in the area. He said that at least three villages in the area which include Hanjan, Natib and Pachard have been badly affected.
Another local from Sangarwani said that they are facing similar problems due to the no network of Jio. “Despite this, most of the people in the area have opted for Jio services but the company never took our problems seriously. If they don’t take steps, we will have no option but to change to another service provider,” said Bilal Ahmad, an annoyed consumer.
Locals in the area said that with the launch of the company, they used to have good network and internet speed but when the number of customers rose, the authorities reduced the network coverage to lesser areas which has hit the customers living a kilometer away from the nearby sites.
Mudasir Nazir, an Jio Engineer admitted that around a half dozen tower site are yet to start in the area which include villages of Pulwama and Budgam districts. “It will take us a month to lay the OFC. The work was affected by last year’s shutdown post abrogation of article 370 and this year by Coronavirus,” he said.

Raashid Hassan