DIBRUGARH, Feb 8 — Just days before Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) services of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was to start off in Assam, the defence and frequency allocation mandarins have decided that the facility has to be kept under wraps in the State. The reason? These “specialists” think that the militants would use the technology for subterfuge! Before going into a bit of a detail, it would be pertinent here to note that the Government of India had declared earlier that all the villages of the country would be linked by telephones by March 2002. Given the dismal track record of the village MARR phones, the BSNL decided to go in for the WLL technology in a big way, as this technology is far superior to MARR, with almost no fault rate. In Assam, BSNL proposed to introduce WLL phones in the 888/843 megahertz frequency. WLL being a digital technology, there were high hopes pinned on it in the rural interiors of the State.
WLL is a telecom technology where there is a wireless link between the telephone exchange and the subscriber. Technically it is based on the code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, and the entire exchange-media-subscriber unit is digital, with signals going to and fro in “packets” of data (unlike in the ordinary “analogue” telephone link). The best part about WLL is that the call charges would be same as that of ordinary telephone connections (Rs 1.26 per local call unit at the highest slab). Unlike in cellular phones, WLL subscribers do not have to pay the additional airtime charges and neither incoming call charges. As could be understood, the cellular phone operators are opposed tooth and nail to WLL, as they see this technology as a threat to their business. To counter this, BSNL declared that all rural WLL connections would have a fixed subscriber unit, so that the WLL phone cannot be taken around beyond 100 feet of the base unit. In the urban areas, however, (Assam has been left out of this too) BSNL is planning to introduce the “limited mobile service” based on WLL technology. Which means that an urban WLL subscriber can carry around his WLL phone around an area of 5 kms radius from the transmitting tower. Cellular services offer mobility upto 60 kms radius without roaming facility.
A major hindrance to setting up of WLL phone systems in Assam, as well as in other sister states in the North east, was the mandatory clearance from the WPC Wing of the Department of Telecommunications. In the case of Assam, this hurdle was overcome on January 2 this year. This wing is the nodal agency in the country for radio spectrum allocation. With this clearance in hand, BSNL in Assam was forging ahead to provide the service in Assam, first in the rural areas, to be followed in the urban areas. But suddenly, on February 5, the Assam Telecom Circle received a letter from the BSNL head office in New Delhi, where the telecom company was directed to stop all working connection with the service, “until further orders.” The instruction was verbal, and curt. “Installation of the WLL equipment of second phase has to be postponed. The matter is most urgent.”
It is gathered that there was an important meeting on telecom affairs in Guwahati recently. It was here that the security forces, specially the Army, objected to the commencement of WLL services. Their fear was that the service could be “misused” by militants. Earlier too, the Secretarial Advisory Committee on Frequency Allocation (SACFA) was reluctant to allot frequency for wireless telecommunication in Assam and the North east. SACFA is a Government of India body, and New Delhi has been known to scuttle several development activities in this region just because there are “militants at large.” This is quite in contrast to the Government’s repeated claims that the Centre is treating the North-east in a special way. “The speciality is in denying the region’s due,” quipped a senior MP, when asked to comment. Several MPs The Assam Tribune contacted said they will take up the matter at New Delhi, and try to see to it that technological advancements in telecommunications are not denied in the Northeast on the pretext of insurgency. All now depends on how forcefully the MPs make a cause of the issue.