Jammu: Amid growing concerns over the China’s increased activity in Pangong lake area of eastern Ladakh, India seems to be working on a mission of expanding its infrastructure, including telecom connectivity, to keep a regular monitoring on all ‘ill-designs’ of two hostile neighbours along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Line of Control (LoC).
In this context, Reliance Jio has launched its 4G voice and data services at Spangmik village near Pangong lake which has been a friction point between India and China in recent years.
An informal statement of the telecom player, however, refrained from making comments on the strategic importance of mobile services in the area and preferred to link it to providing better facilities to visiting tourists in the area.
It said,“it (Jio) has been continuously expanding and augmenting its network in Ladakh region in line with its vision to digitally connect everyone and empower societies”.
“Overcoming the challenge of extremely difficult terrain and harsh weather conditions, Team Jio continues with its efforts of reaching the remotest parts of the Union Territory to ensure that people remain in touch in the areas which otherwise remain cut off from the rest of the country for months,” an official of the Reliance Jio said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the meetings between Indian and Chinese military delegations take place to resolve the Indian-China build up in eastern Ladakh at the forward location Chushul along the LAC. There were 12 villages in the Chushul constituency falling at the borders, including those around the Pangong Lake where there was no 4G connectivity.
Lok Sabha member from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, who has always favoured better connectivity in the UT, inaugurated the Jio mobile tower at Spangmik village.
Namgyal asserted that with the launch of the mobile network in the area, the long pending demand of the locals has been fulfilled.
“This launch will boost the economy of the region besides providing seamless connectivity to the tourists and the troops in the area,” he said.
Pertinently, Namgyal had demanded installation of sufficient mobile towers for all 350 uncovered areas to ensure better connectivity in Ladakh.
“It is a well-known fact that there are around 350 villages and hamlets in Ladakh parliamentary constituency which have remained deprived of mobile facility. These areas in Leh and Kargil districts have not been provided mobile facility till date because none of the private telecom operators and BSNL. They found it appropriate to install towers in these areas due to high operational cost and less returns,” Namgyal had said while raising the issue of poor connectivity in Ladakh in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Namgyal visited Chulungkha village at LoC in Turtuk area today and inaugurated, among other facilities, a 4G Jio Mobile Tower under USOF (Universal Service Obligation Fund).
In February 2020, Lieutenant Governor UT Ladakh Radha Krishna Mathur had asked all the telecom players to provide telecom coverage to all remote villages of the region, saying “the satellite phone services are not a tenable solution to the poor voice and data services”.
