The state-owned telecom behemoth, BSNL, came under severe verbal attack from consumer activists at the ‘Consumer Outreach Programme’ held by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Margao on Monday.
the goan I network
MARGAO
The BSNL officials could somewhat finally cool frayed tempers only when they promised to hold ‘Customer Outreach Programme’ for both districts of Goa within a month.
At the receiving end of the consumers’ ire, the BSNL officials at the meet were grilled on complaints pertaining to consumer outreach programmes for both districts, no police complaints into cable cutting incidents, network problems, failure of broadband in many parts of Salcete, etc. Articulating his point of view, Roland Martins of GOACAN claimed the net effect of such an approach by BSNL officials has led to the flight of customers from this public-sector behemoth.
Martins said despite the Collectors of both districts assuring action against those departments indulging in cutting cables only when the BSNL files a police complaint, the BSNL has failed to do the needful in this regard.
Consumer activist Ramona Almeida told the TRAI panel as to how telephone lines in Velim are down during night time. Journalist Arvind Tengse was critical of networking problems faced by BSNL customers. Complaints pertaining to failure of BSNL broadband in many areas were also aired by many consumers.
The issue of radiation from mobile towers also came to the fore at the meet. Martins raised questions about radiation check of these mobile towers and the authority entrusted with checking their radiation levels.
He strongly favoured holding of a workshop on this issue and the need to enforce some guidelines as also finalising the roadmap for the year 2016-17. Complaints regarding overcharging by some cable operators for set-top boxes in the way to digitisation were also raised by the consumers.
Earlier, Senior Research Officers – Latha H C and P S R Murthy – elaborated on complaint redressal, Mobile Number Portability (MNP), unsolicited commercial communications, value added service, mobile tower radiations and cable digitisation.
