TAWANG: The government-funded 4G tower of Airtel started services last week in Lumpo, one of the last villages in the district near the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh, paving the way for access to new-age digital economy for the locals.
Reliance Jio, the bigger rival of Airtel, is already present till Dirang, 38 km from Bomdila – a district between Tawang and state capital Itanagar.
It expects to connect Jang (98 km from Dirang) by mid- May and thereafter connect Tawang (40 km from Jang) by June-end. The telecom tower will open the local population to a host of services, officials said.With improvement in road infrastructure, most of the people in Lumpo and nearby villages have their own vehicles but they need to travel hours for accessing banking, education, shopping, government services, etc. in absence of a data network.
“We have been using mobile phones for the last 10-12 years on the BSNL network but data doesn’t work. Airtel 4G has just started and now we are able to transact using Google Pay, PhonePe here. Google is also working well now. Online videos are also working,” Dorjee , an electrician based out of Lumpo said.
Lumpo is around 115 kilometres from the Tawang district headquarters and approximately 3-5 kilometres near LAC in terms of aerial distance. While Airtel has boosted telecom services on the Tawang border, Jio has 10 tower sites on the Indo-Bangla border in Tripula and 19 on the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya as well as on the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram and Manipur.
Jio has a total of 457 sites on international borders. Airtel has 383 sites. Dorjee said locals are required to send their kids to Tawang town for education as even small doubts related to studies cannot be cleared in the village.
“With 4G services starting here, we will be able to provide online classes for our kids here,” Dorjee said.
Most of the locals here are blue-collared workers but are well versed with the importance of data and they access it when they travel towards town.
Zemithang , another village near LAC, at a distance of about 17 kilometres from Lumpo, recently started getting 4G signals from Airtel but locals said it is not regular. Village head Phurpha Leki said people have been using the BSNL network for the last 10-12 years but it does not support data connectivity.
Tawang extra assistant commissioner and in-charge district commissioner Rinchin Leta said all villages located near LAC will be covered with 4G, and 2G sites in those areas are being upgraded to 4G. “59 towers in Tawang are being upgraded to 4G. As per the Government of India instructions it should be done by December. The entire border area will be covered with 4G towers that are coming up with the support of USOF. Towers are being set up at Bum La Pass.,” Leta said.
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