TURA: Once regarded as a leading cellular company in Garo Hills before the arrival of Jio and the merger of Idea and Vodafone, Airtel is now facing flak from customers over its poor network services in the region.
Be it in Tura or other parts of Garo Hills, complaints are galore about the services of India’s former No. 1 cellular network over poor network connectivity.
From individual customers to now student organizations, many who banked on the network are now demanding better services from Airtel.
“Airtel claims in its advertisements that it has the fastest 4G network but here in South Garo Hills we barely can get even its 2G services,” criticised Mindikgre Garo Students Union.
“Network is extremely poor and more so from 3 O’clock to 10 PM. Just to connect to a number we have to make an attempt of 10-30 times. How can such a service be given in today’s age of modern mobile connectivity?” questioned GSU leader Greneth M Sangma of Mindikgre regional unit, Baghmara.
He added that because of the poor services of the mobile company, which was one of the first and only few to operate in the area, mobile connectivity among the people remain poor.
Locals claim that the only possible way for many to keep in touch with the outside world is by purchase of sim cards of networks operating from neighbouring Bangladesh, which is not only illegal but also expensive as calls are charged with international rates.