Reliance Jio seeks community support for better internet facility in Nagaland

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Sep. 27: Reliance Jio, Dimapur has said the telecommunication service provider has sought permission from the state government to deploy sites on government properties for ‘digital Nagaland’.

Addressing a press conference at the Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. office in Dimapur on Friday, September 27 with the company’s state head, cooperate communications Anjuli Chittaranjan and its Dimapur representatives, manager of Jio, Nagaland state George Murry told media persons that it faces challenges to provide smooth network service mainly because of non cooperation from the public.

The company, Murry said, has requested support from the government for granting registration of Jio under the Nagaland IT policy; to help expedite acquisition of sites at central government properties, especially in defence/cantonment area; and continued support of Nagaland electricity board for expediting power connections to Jio facilities.

Murry pointed out that acquisition of private site, particularly in Dimapur and Kohima was next to impossible. In order to catch up with the rest of the country and Northeast, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd needs permission to install sites on government properties with prevailing rentals and other terms and conditions, he added.

“Getting permission from the village headman and neighbour (and) no objection certificate cannot be predicted as it depends on the moods of the individuals,” Reliance Jio Dimapur representatives lamented.

“Nagaland was the first state in Northeast to distribute latest technology mobile tablets loaded with class XI and XII syllabi and exam-related content under the Student Digital Learning Aid Scheme (SDLAS) designed to empower the students and encourage e-learning,” Murry maintained.

Jio representatives in Dimapur said the internet service provider has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorate of Higher Education Nagaland for 17 colleges. 93 colleges were selected for college Wi-Fi programme and agreement has been signed with 48 institutions, while 27 institutions are integrated. They also informed that the total fibre to be covered was 1791 km out of which 759 km has been deployed and the work in progress is 1032 km.

On the fear of radiation due to installation of cell tower, the telecommunications company maintained that the permissible limit was .01 and no company is violating the rules as it will invite a penalty of INR 50 lakh to INR 1 crore per tower. If any company violates the permissible limit, they are bound to pay the hefty penalty and which the company cannot afford to or put a person at risk, they maintained.