As the COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold, Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal has called upon all three private players, viz. Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio to work together and share networks so as to ensure that the nation stays connected.
Writing for the Economic Times (ET), Mittal says, “Today, the world is collectively dealing with the menace of COVID-19 and taking emergency measures to contain and eventually eliminate the virus. One such measure is the enforcement of ‘social distancing’ — physical distancing intended to stop or slow down the spread of a contagious disease. All establishments are shutting, people are being asked to stay and work from home. Movement of people within and beyond both state and national borders is being restricted, except for those providing essential services.”
Amid this lockdown, when people’s movements are severely curtailed, it is ‘virtual connectivity’ that is proving to be a saviour, he says. “The value of telecommunication networks — both mobile and fixed — has never been more pronounced. Advances in technology are ensuring that the world can, and is, operating seamlessly through telecom platforms and applications and services riding on it, even when confined to homes.
The immense benefit of knowing that your near and dear ones are safe and well, the old and infirm are a tap away from help, infants and kids get constant comfort from their families stuck far away are just a few examples of what telecom provides us.”
It’s the voice and video calls as well as mails and messaging that are ensuring that almost everyone can serve the nation and keep the wheels in motion. Essential services like ordering of food, groceries to delivery of medicines, is being enabled round the clock, he notes.
“Over 1 million base stations, several hundred thousand kilometres of fibre, thousands of switching centres, network operation centres and call centres are operating to ensure that every Indian remains connected at this difficult point in our lives.” Mittal further says that every time you make a call, send a message, or video-stream your favourite movie, you should spare a thought for those who are managing networks 24x7.
Mittal credited the government’s ‘Digital India’ mission for enabling India to create a robust mobile broadband infrastructure and writes that this is now coming to play a crucial role in times of social distancing, in keeping the country moving amidst such a pandemic.
He also called upon the government to urgently implement the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to minimise the burden of taxes and levies.
Meanwhile, Airtel has said it is ready to meet any exigency as it starts to operate in the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) mode especially at a time when bandwidth usage spikes as more people start working from home.
The company has contacted its enterprise and government customers to ensure smooth functioning of all essential services, Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer of Airtel, told ET.
Meanwhile, Airtel said it has enabled over 80% of its workforce to work from home through secure connections.