1200 telephones dead

GUWAHATI, Jan 10: About 1,200 telephones under the two West Guwahati Telecom Sub-divisions are dead for more than one month now. Till the last week, the number of dead phones under both the sub-divisions was around 1,500. [AT]

Goreswar phone network in a shabby state

GORESWAR, Jan 25: Strong resentment prevails among people of No 5 Goreswar and Gashbari area, about 5 km distance from Goreswar Telephone Exchange, due to the apathy of the SDO, Ranigya Telephone Exchange towards the solution to the long-standing problem of phone connections in rural areas. [AT]

Telephones out of order

GUWAHATI, Jan 25: About 400 telephones in Guwahati College Road and Jyotinagar area went out of order since January 24 due to theft of underground cables, a Telecommunication Department release said. [S]

North-East internet users facing a harrowing time GUWAHATI, Feb 2: Internet users in the North-east are having a harrowing time getting access to the net, thanks to the utter casual manner in which the Telecom department has put up the facilities for the subscribers. "Surfers" are to wait for hours on end to get into the "net". [S]

Cable fault

GUWAHATI, Feb 15: About 300 telephones in Silpukhuri (ML Baruah Road) and Chandmari area have gone faulty due to damage of cables. Repair work is going on, informed a release issued by telephone authorities. [AT]

Haflong telephone network in shambles

HAFLONG, Feb 28: Telecom service in Haflong as a whole and Lower Haflong in particular is in shambles except for one or two privileged subscribers. Lodging complaints with compliant booth of the exchange is a futile exercise as alleged by the subscribers. [AT]

Faulty phones

GUWAHATI, March 16: About 400 telephones in Silpukhuri and Chandmari areas of the city -- ML Baruah Road, PD Chaliha Road, Hedayetpur, Guwahati Club and UN Bezbaruah Road -- have gone out of order due to damage of cables, informs the divisional engineer phones (Ex. 1) from his Ambari office, adding, repair work is in progress. [AT]

20 kg telephone cables recovered

GUWAHATI, March 26: Jalukbari police last night recovered about 20 kg of Telecommunication Department cables from the godown of a businessman Pradip Sarawgi at Garchuk. [AT]

Woes of telephone subscribers continue

GUWAHATI, April 3 : The telecom department is sure to object to it, but the common feeling among the harassed telephone subscribers in the city is -- dial telecom for trouble. [AT]

SULFA man held

GUWAHATI, April 12: Panbazar police last night arrested a surrendered ULFA man, Jiten Gogoi, on charges of extortion from a computer firm at Panbazar area. Police sources informed that the accused demanded Rs 10,000 monthly in addition to Rs 800 per internet connection provided by the firm. [AT]

1000 telephones out of order GUWAHATI, May 1: About 1000 telephones of Solapara, Palatanbazar, AT Road, Rehabari, Satribari, Nepali Mandir, some parts of Ulubari along with many press data circuits parented to Ulubari exchange have gone out of order due to sudden break down of duct cables, according to a press release. [AT]

Irregularities in Nagaon telecom office alleged

JAGIROAD, May 9: Large-scale irregularities in the Nagaon Telecommunication Department have caused concern among the subscribers here. It has been alleged that despite having a subdivisional office of the department at Morigaon, the accounts section covering the Morigaon office has not been transferred causing great inconvenience to the subscribers who have to move to the Nagaon office, 65 km from here, for any complaint regarding telephone bills. [S]

Telephone in large parts of city go dead, no step being taken for repairs

GUWAHATI, May 23: Telephones in large parts of the city have gone dead since the past several weeks, as the subscribers have had to run from pillar to post in the Kamrup district Telecom office here to get them repaired but to no avail, amid allegations that the smarter among them could get things done by greasing the right palms in the Telecom office. [S]

Telephone subscribers stage dharna

DIBRUGARH, May 29: Aggrieved telephone subscribers of Lahowal area, 20 km away from here, being frustrated upon the telecom authorities failure to address their long standing grievances of 'faulty telephone service' and the officials' lapses were forced to in repairing the technical fault staged dharna at Lahowal exchange on May 27. [S]

In e-world, Sivsagar makes do with faulty fax, telex JORHAT, July 4: The people of Sivasagar are embittered. At a time when the people of big cities are availing internet and other modern means of communication people here are deprived of conventional modes like telegram and fax services. Thanks to the callous attitude of the local telecom department the telegraph system in Sivasagar has almost collapsed. Strange it may sound, but it is true that for the last four or five months, the telegraph office has functioned -- in the real sense of the term -- only for three or four days. [NED]

Disruption of telephone hits scribes

BISWANATH CHARIALI, July 24: Following the disruption of telephone communication to the office of the information and Public Relation officer, Biswanath Chariali since 1999 the journalists and others who have to contact the office frequently are in great difficulty to perform their duties properly. [S]

Poor functioning of telephone exchange

LEDO, Aug 6: The consumers of the Ledo Telephone exchange expressed their deep anguish over the poor functioning of the exchange. Locals here allege that not to speak of the long distance calls (STD, etc.) even to get a telephone call (local) to Margherita (8 km), Lekapani (8 km), Jagun (12 km), Digboi (17 km) and vice versa has become a highly time consuming and irritable affair. [S]

Telephone exchange out of order

JAGIROAD, Sept 4: Following lack of required technical experts in the Jagiroad Telephone Exchange, it has remained out of order for last two days. The age old telephone exchange at Jagiroad was recently upgraded to C-DOT category with appointment of one SDO but surprisingly no technician has been appointed yet. [S]

Telecom, Internet services remain erratic

GUWAHATI, Sept 21: The erratic Internet and telephone services continue to hit the subscribers of the State and other North-eastern States for over 20 days, setting the clock back as far as much vaunted information technology revolution in this backward region is concerned. [AT]

Scribes protest telecom breakdown GUWAHATI, Sept 25: City-based scribes, under the banner of Guwahati Press Club, today staged a demonstration in front of the office of the Chief General Manager, Assam Telecom Circle here to protest against the poor telecommunication facilities and complete breakdown of Internet services for the past 15 days or so. [AT]

Underground cables damaged

GUWAHATI, Sept 29: The underground cables have been damaged by workers on the National Highway No. 37 due to road widening at Lakhra Chariali and towards Balaji Mandir, stated a press release. About 200 telephones are reported to out of order due to damaged cables. Restoration work is in progress. [S]

Defence Ministry's 'no' to cell phones irk many deprived NE customers

SHILLONG, Dec 13: Following instructions from the Defence Ministry, celluar phone services in the North-eastern region have been hit hard, resulting in huge losses, right from the time when mobile services were introduced in the region, a couple of years ago. It may be recalled that according to Defence Ministry sources, Reliance Telecom, the only mobile telephone provider in the region has been barred from extending their services to other North-eastern States due to the problems of insurgency. The Defence Ministry has observed that, keeping in mind the safety and security of the country, it will not be proper to allow the introduction of cellular services in certain NS States, as it may well reach the militants, who in turn will use such handy sets for terrorist activities. [S]

Tele density in Assam below national average

GUWAHATI, Dec 25: The demand for telephones is yet to pick up in Assam compared to the rest of the country. Against the national average of 2.8 telephones per 100 persons, Assam has only 1.34 telephones per 100 persons, almost half the national average. [AT]