A very significant and the most important factor in tourism is how well a tourist is connected to his destination and when in destinations, how well is he/she is connected to the rest of the world or with their families back there at home.

Arunachal today is a land with well connected network interface which is a bench mark  of telecommunications reach in the North East. Arunachal Pradesh is the only state in north east, which has been blessed with VSAT connectivity at a tremendous and frightening height of 14000ft above sea level thanks to Airtel, which has been providing services ever since 2006 in Arunachal Pradesh. Telecom provides a vast range of services like Cellular Telephone Service, Landline Telephone Service, WLL Service, Data Service or Internet Service, Broadband Service, etc, which caters to the needs and the demands of the people depending on the nature of the same. Today a tourist is able to visit this place easily and everything seems hassle-free due to well connected network and advancements in science and technology.

People in Arunachal Pradesh enjoy such services by various service providers like Airtel, BSNL, Aircel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance, which provides uninterrupted network services to its people.

On a recent survey, it has been found that, in Northern regions of Arunachal Pradesh people have been using and benefiting from Airtel, as they have found that Airtel provides the service were others sometime fails. But in some parts of rural Arunachal people use BSNL as the network reach of BSNL is strong and cost effective.

Kenjum Loya, a 2nd year student of a reputed college in Itanagar says, “I love trekking so I use Airtel , as it provides me the best network coverage at high terrains and places where other network fails, but Airtel caters to my need and my family stays updated regarding my whereabouts. I use Vodafone as well. My locality comprises of people especially housewives who use Aircel as well, but it is limited to the city as they do not travel much. Here many houses are connected with BSNL landline and Broadband service, along with Cellular Mobile Service, competing with Airtel.

Speaking to one Gopal Rai, a transmission Executive at a leading Radio Station in Arunachal Pradesh, we found that certain hilly regions in Arunachal lag behind in network coverage. Meanwhile Rai says, “I am a frequent traveller, as I need to travel various places to set up various transmission equipments which are mostly located at high terrains and high terrestrial areas. Once I have been to Tawang, where I found out that similar things happening, where my BSNL was out of reach and Airtel provided me uninterrupted network coverage. I use BSNL, because it gives good network when in town, but Airtel has supported me throughout with best network coverage so far”, says Rai while speaking about network in the state”. “Also once I was on an official tour to Ziro, and I was suppose to make an important phone call, but to my surprise my BSNL number was dead with no network coverage, whereas Airtel gave me uninterrupted network coverage.”

Research says Airtel, is the only highly advanced and enhanced integrated Telecom Company to provide structured and geographically strong telecom network in Arunachal Pradesh. It is indeed a milestone touched in the history of torrential telecom services to be ever provided in high altitudinal areas of North East India, especially Arunachal Pradesh.

Tourists visiting Arunachal Pradesh has found Tawang to be the most catchy and the most adventurous spot to be explored and also the site that should be a must visit for tourist.

Meanwhile, during a research work done to investigate deep into the matter of connectivity in higher terrains, we found out that Airtel has come up with a great technological leap which is called the Network Experience Centre (NEC), which is based in Manesar (Gurgaon) provides and connectivity to the whole country with uninterrupted network and will be able to monitor Airtel’s network performance across Mobile, Fixed Line and DSL Broadband, DTH, M-Commerce, Enterprise Services, International Cable Systems and internet peering points from a single location. It will monitor all Airtel and partner NOCs and in case of any emergency, the operator will have a 360 degree view of any issue, thereby helping to prioritize actions to restore normalcy and reduce resolution time, which indeed seems to be a promising leap towards reducing the telecommunication barriers that Arunachal Pradesh has been facing since inception and invasion of telecom services into its technologically untouched virgin land. This continuous stream of near real time data will in turn enable Airtel to deliver a superior customer experience across its product offerings to its customers in Arunachal Pradesh and especially to those who reside in the higher terrains of the State facing round the clock climatic changes.
Ram Chettri, an employee of a Media organisation in Itanagar says, “If network will be good, communication will be strong, and if communication will be strong, Arunachal will be as competitive as any of the Metro cities in India. The government and the service providers should collectively take efforts and responsibility towards mankind and help people in Arunachal to prosper and help the state to flourish in the global arena”.

While talking to some of the Airtel and BSNL users, we found that Airtel seems to be on the upper edge in terms of customer satisfaction. Ravi Singh, an Airtel user says, “I was stunned and I highly appreciate the customer care service of Airtel, as it caters to my queries and needs whereas my younger brother who uses BSNL has hardly got through the Customer Care number.” Not only customers care service but as far as tariff rates are concerned, people in Arunachal Pradesh consider Airtel to be the superior network. “I am highly satisfied with the network service Airtel has been providing to its customers. Also I feel that every customer must be of the same opinion as mine.” Shreya, an employee in one private firm in Arunachal.

As a matter of fact, telecom service is the one and the only way to reach out and stay connected to the rest of the world. It is the only way to send out a rescue message in case of an emergency in high terrestrial areas like Arunachal Pradesh.  Tawang has been facing tremendous landslides resulting in fatal tragedies due to natural and accidental calamities, until the day it was connected by telecom network. Conclusions can be many but solution is one.

One cannot overlook the fact that providing VSAT facility at 14000 ft above sea level is no mean task. The pleasure for a tourist to be sitting perched up there sending a picture of his, back home or the smile brought on the face of a daily wage earner as he is connected at the lofty heights, is beyond words. So I leave it to you to decide which the divine network is in the land of the dawn-lit mountains........

Hemen Das.