Sunday, February 13, 2011

Can't call? Blame it on jail jammers

"Hello Papa don't worry. We have reached&.." "Hello&can you hear me?" "Your voice is not clear &"

If you come across such unfinished conversations at Khel Gaon and Mega Sports Complex like on Saturday afternoon, blame it on Birsa Munda Central Jail.

While thousands of players, technical officials and guests are finding it difficult to communicate with their family members in wake of poor mobile connectivity, a technical staff of a private mobile service provider said jammers fitted at the jail stone's throw away from the sports complex stop people to make uninterrupted calls.

Not just mobile phones, wireless data cards a useful tool for direct link to the cyber world from the sporting arena are also experiencing frequent drop in network speed.

Tamilnadu Taekwondo Association deputy secretary S Kothandan seemed perplexed over the repeated drop in internet network. "I have been trying to use this data card but the network is failing every now and then making it difficult for me to send mails and establish communication with the state office," he said.

Kothandan admitted that if the connectivity issue was not resolved, real-time update of results and event details would be a big challenge for the organizers and competition directors.

Sanjib Chatterjee, the technical official for swimming, said that he was using a couple of sim cards and still finding it difficult to make or receive a call. "BSNL is slightly better than any other services but there are pockets in the stadium where none of the connections uis working," he said.

The pinch is being felt badly by outstation players, some of them coming to Jharkhand for the first time. Karnataka volleyball player N Ganeshan said his parents were apprehensive about his coming to Jharkhand. "The place is known for extremist activities and my parents were worried about me. What has made the situation complex is network failure," he complained, saying that he is getting calls but no voice quality.

Carrying three sims of private service providers, Ganeshan is prepared to buy a local sim if he gets connectivity.

Players from Haryana complained about unavailability of recharge coupons near their place of stay in Khel Gaon saying that because of poor network they are losing money in roaming. "Everytime I am trying to receive a call instead of being able to talk I am losing 50 paise as roaming charges and there is no recharge facility here," said M N Kaur of the state's athletics team said. source

No comments:

Post a Comment