Know Mobile Connectivity, Know Digital India – No Mobile Connectivity, No Digital India

Even though the heading of this article is self-explanatory, I’d still deep dive into the topic and share my analysis as to why these terms go hand-in-hand. So to begin with let’s touch upon what is Digital India?

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. – Source Wikipedia

In simpler words, the primary focus of this Rs 1.13 lakh crore initiative is empowering citizens of India with always available connectivity. And using technology to create a participative, transparent and responsive government.

Prime Minister Modi led ‘Digital India’ initiative has the following vision and pillars:

Vision Of Digital India

• Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen
• Governance & Services on Demand
• Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Pillars Of Digital India

• Broadband Highways
• Universal Access to Phones
• Public Internet Access Programme
• e-Governance – Reforming government through Technology
• e-Kranti – Electronic delivery of services
• Information for All
• Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports
• IT for Jobs
• Early Harvest Programmes

The gist of ‘Digital India’ for citizens like you and me is – better connectivity, on demand services, more jobs in the IT sector. That brings us back to our topic Know mobile connectivity, Know Digital India – No mobile connectivity, No Digital India. Now that you have understood the essence of ‘Digital India’, let me touch base as to why mobile connectivity or the lack of it will make or break the ‘Digital India’ initiative.

As a tech journalist, I’m mostly on the move and thus all my tasks take place on my smartphone. From filling stories, to checking mails or keeping up to date on social media everything takes place on the move. If I’m not doing it on my smartphone then it’s either my tablet or my laptop but all are ultimately connected or dependent on mobile connectivity. And there is almost 30-40% of population in the metro cities who are largely dependent on mobile connectivity for their livelihood. I’m not even counting millennial generation who are hooked on to their smart devices 24/7.

So when such a large chunk of society is dependent on mobile connectivity then why are suffering with bad or no connectivity. How can we make India the ‘Digital India’ that our PM foresees?

On digging further as to why we are stuck in medieval age of connectivity, when the world is planning 5G. I found out that there is a blame game going between Mobile Operators and TRAI. How did I figure this out?

Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared about how Digital India is faring but as they till say ‘you don’t care till you don’t suffer.’ Sadly, I did suffer and that’s when I decided to analyze the situation and write about it.

In fact, I’m still plagued by poor mobile connectivity as I write this post. The situation has got so out of hands that in my own room, if I move from one corner to another the call drops. What will I do with 4G or 3G connectivity if there are no networks, both at my workplace and home? And I not the only one ridiculed by poor or no connectivity. The only solution left was calling the mobile operators (Vodafone and Airtel) in my case and ranting about the issues I’m facing.

Frankly, you will not feel that you have got any help after you speak to the customer care at any of the telecom operators. It’s when you research and talk to senior officials you understand the dearth of the situation. I learnt it the hard way that it’s not the mobile operators that can be blamed about the poor or no mobile connectivity that we are facing, in fact due to lack of mobile towers they are also flooded with such complaints.

In my conversation with a senior official from a leading mobile operator, he stressed the fact that health related issues linked to mobile towers are a myth. And with such invalid claims most of the mobile towers have been removed from residential areas.

At a recent press conference, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, said “As responsible citizens, it is our duty to understand the importance of misplaced concerns of mobile tower radiation could seriously jeopardise India’s path to greatness as seamless mobility could be affected by such unfounded fears. Thousands of research have been done on the subject and so far there is no conclusive evidence to link mobile tower emissions to human health hazards.”

Now that you have read both sides of the story, you might be in a dilemma as to what next should be done?

The only thing that matters to me or should matter to you as consumer is unparalleled connectivity. And until the government is unable to provide us with a better mobile connectivity by revamping the infrastructure we cannot achieve ‘Digital India.’

So, Know Mobile Connectivity, Know Digital India – No Mobile Connectivity, No Digital India.

Read the full article here.

It’s Just A Telecom Tower Not A Nuclear Plant!!

Go anywhere in the country, be it urban sections, rural geographies, educated communities, industrial towns suburbs or metropolitans, the word telecom tower is surrounded by myths that take you back in time when people believed that Earth was flat. The beliefs are so strong that degrees from reputed educational institutions fail to convince people to let go of their myths and associated misconceptions about telecom towers and Radiation. Ironically in a world so unbalanced a common factor that binds the society together is a myth, a farce, that has been scientifically discarded with enough empirical data points proving Telecom towers ‘Not Guilty’ of causing cancer!!

While people are justified in being overtly cautious about the safety and wellbeing of their loved ones but it is equally important for them to understand the technology and be able to differentiate between the myths and realities.

Initial culprits were identified as the telecom operators and the lobbying groups to be giving baseless theories about telecom towers having no adverse effects on the health of the living beings around it, then suddenly the concept of losing male potency originated scaring the daylights out of people, then there were videos and graphics of mobile phone radiations being able to pop popcorns and then there were individuals and indifferences of our community to believe anything being fed to them in the name of health hazards. Then began the blame game on the authorities and telecom stakeholders to be partnering with Network providers and accusations for easing the guidelines and emission norms set for Telecom towers and base stations. The list was endless and had detrimental effects in framing a policy framework and growth of the sector. Individuals, NGOs, citizen charters and resident welfare associations began propagating the thought with some baseless case studies and claims leading to unrest in some locations.

While the sector and this specific issue was being compared to Tobacco and Liquor lobby, came forth the norms (one of the most stringiest) and standards by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulator making the radiation/emission way below the approved levels. More so, these statistics when pitted against the standards followed by International Commission on non-ionising Radiation Protection suggested that India’s safety factor was (and is still) 10 times stiffer than in 90 percent countries. So much so, the radio frequency radiation from mobile towers and phones are in the range as minuscule as one-thousandth to one-millionth of an electron Volt! Thus, mobile tower “radiation” is lakhs of times weaker than X-rays or UV rays or even normal visible light. In fact, so low that they simply cannot cause any disturbance of electrons in the basic atoms of matter or living tissue. Hence, they are classified as “non-ionising radiation”.

And if the telecom stakeholders were also not to be trusted, came the studies from World Health Organization, The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Researchers from IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Delhi and IISc Bangalore giving real data and proof points from studies conducted over a decade long period proving that there is no harmful impact of tower radiation on health. The reports claim that it is more inappropriate or bizarre to link up mobile tower emissions with the former category of high energy radiation which includes frequencies beyond ultraviolet, i.e. X-rays, gamma rays, etc. These all studies and findings were further backed by the rulings from Allahabad, Gujarat and Kerala High courts.

Kudos to the Government and Telecom department which has decided to be vocal about the misconceptions and clear the unnecessary confusion around the telecom base stations and radiations, leveraging the empirical data and research from these studies to propagate this amongst the masses.

While the information that was being circulated earlier was baseless and wrong, it is also time for the sector and stakeholders to use the right terminology and tonality for the telecom processes and equipments that make it sound simple and un-jargonized. They should associate and engage at a micro level helping individuals and groups understand and accept the technology as a support function rather than a ‘necessary evil’.

Read the full article here.