Campbell Bay, 03 Dec 2020
Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar the southernmost territory of India was connected with 4G mobile services of BSNL this afternoon. The residents of Great Nicobar are more joyful than ever before after BSNL authorities informed them to get their old Sim Cards converted to new 4G Sim Cards to avail high-speed mobile data services over 4G network.
Several youngsters flocked the BSNL Office to convert their old 2G and 3G sim cards to the new 4G SIM cards. BSNL is providing 4G mobile services by using the 3G spectrum in most parts of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Nicobar Times spoke to the Junior Telecom Officer of BSNL, Campbell Bay who confirmed that 4G mobile service has been commissioned in Campbell Bay in the main BTS. On querying about the available bandwidth provided for 4G services, the JTO informed that since the 4G services are commissioned using the 3G spectrum it limits the bandwidth to 100 Mbps.
Residents of Campbell Bay had been demanding 4G mobile services at Campbell Bay since the commissioning of the CANI Submarine Optical Fiber Cable at the Island. The broadband services in the Island had improved considerably after the commissioning of the CANI SMC, but mobile data was not working, with the introduction of 4G mobile data services now residents of Campbell Bay will be able to access high-speed mobile data on their mobile phones.
Shri. E.S Rajesh one of the Ex-PRI’s of Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar who had written to administration along with other Ex-PRI’s for commissioning of 4G services in Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar has expressed happiness over the news of the start of 4G services in Campbell Bay. Shri. E.S Rajesh has expressed his gratitude towards the authorities of BSNL and the District Administration for accepting the demand of the Ex-PRI’s to start the 4G services in Campbell Bay. He has also asked the residents of Campbell Bay to use the services productively. While speaking to Nicobar Times over the phone this evening he expanded on the unlimited opportunities this 4G services will create in Campbell Bay and surrounding areas. He also congratulated the students of Great Nicobar who now will be able to access high-speed data services at an affordable cost.
Nicobar Times performed a first-hand test of the 4G services of BSNL at Campbell Bay. During our test, we used the built-in speed test provided on Google Search (in partnership with M-Lab) and we found the download speeds reaching up to 3 Mbps. The upload speeds were however very low and were in the range of 0.01 Mbps-0.03 Mbps on all the five tests performed.
The residents hope to get better upload speed with time. Overall the introduction of 4G services in Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar is a historical step towards digitalisation of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well as our country. The residents of the southernmost part of the country are now connected with the rest of the world through 4G mobile services.
The local BSNL authorities of Campbell Bay needs to be lauded for their hard work and continued pursuance of the demand with the higher authorities which resulted in the start of 4G services in Campbell Bay this afternoon. The local authorities of BSNL had given a timeline for the end of December 2020, for commissioning of 4G services in Campbell Bay to the Ex-PRI’s in reply to their demands. The authorities were able to commission 4G services almost a month before their deadline.