Imlisanen Jamir
Suddenly, it’s now digital or bust.
This lockdown has highlighted the need for technology that can sustain business operations, help educate students and keep people connected and engaged—from Zoom and various streaming platforms to online banking and shopping, food delivery apps, etc.
Advanced technology will be even more essential with the pandemic accelerating the transition to a digital world, especially for sectors such as education, health, retail, and even medicine.
But this shift to the digital economy will only be possible with reliable internet connectivity—and for Nagaland this is a challenge.
The past few weeks have seen many organizations pulling up telecom service providers in the State for their dismal network connectivity.
The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), on July 3 pointed to challenges faced by the students in accessing the online learning programme introduced by the Department of School Education (DoSE) in Nagaland. It asked the government to take immediate measures to tackle poor network coverage and slow internet connectivity in the state.
Soon after, the Ao Kaketshir Mungdang (AKM) locked down the shutters of two telecom service providers’ offices in Mokokchung town after they failed to work on improving their services as demanded by the apex organization. This was followed by similar appeals made in Tuensang by the Confederation of Chang Students' Union (CCSU) and others.
Despite 4G services coming into mainstream use for several years now, complaints abound that subscribers neither receive the 4G network signal (often enough) nor get the desired download speed. This compounded by the fact that a major chunk of the population still depends on wireless internet with broadband connectivity yet to achieve sufficient coverage.
Flashy ad campaigns by telecom companies are shown as false or misleading through a simple test about 4G services. If you set your mobile network settings to long term evolution (LTE) or 4G-only mode, you can easily figure out how often you are without a network signal.
However, if you switch to LTE/3G/2G auto mode, you will immediately receive a network signal. Unfortunately, even on a 4G network signal, there is no guarantee that you would actually receive 4G data speed. This problem applies to all mobile operators.
This battered economy and society needs fast, affordable, and stable internet to get back on its feet. Society will need to depend more on digital ways of doing things as the pandemic lingers.
In the necessary shift to digital, the need for it now accelerated by this pandemic, the telecom sector needs to upgrade infrastructure and coverage, do away with its lackadaisical maintenance of existing systems, and government pressure must be exerted to those not living up to their promises.
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