Digital Desk: Residents in over five dozen villages along the northern edge of Ri Bhoi district in Meghalaya are grappling with a never-ending issue of extremely poor Airtel mobile network services provided by Bharti Airtel.
The frustrated residents have now written a letter to Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, seeking his intervention to address the matter.
The villagers added that they have already registered a complaint with the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and have written to Union Communication Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for intervention.
Despite ongoing complaint, Airtel's service in the area remains erratic and extremely poor. The service remains highly unreliable with frequent and prolonged network outages that often last for several hours.
Consequently, the impoverished tribal pre-paid users in these areas remain disconnected from vital services, emergency communications, and financial transactions, leading to immense hardships.
However, despite repeated failures, Bharti Airtel continues to demand full payments in advance from impoverished tribal users, without offering any extensions of validity of the plans or compensation for the poor service.
This behavior not only reflects negligence but also constitutes exploitation of marginalized communities who are already struggling with limited resources.
Bharti Airtel, entrusted by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to provide mobile connectivity in remote and tribal-dominated regions, has utterly failed to fulfill its responsibilities.
The residents of the region have urged the kind intervention of Meghalaya CM to look into the matter and speak to Sunil Bharti Mittal, the owner of Bharti Airtel to ensure:
1. Airtel is held accountable for its poor service delivery in these areas.
2. The Department of Telecommunications is informed of an urgent technical audit.
3. Alternative service providers are considered if Airtel is unable to meet its obligations.
4. Villagers are compensated for the prolonged service outages and inconvenience caused.
The villagers have urged the Meghalaya government to take up this matter seriously and ensure a timely resolution.
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