At a time when most parts of the country are enjoying high-speed mobile Internet connectivity, some rural communities are still struggling to get a reliable mobile network. Pangthang chiwog under Patshaling Gewog in Tsirang is one of them.
The poor network in the village located at around 18 kilometres away from Damphu town towards Sarpang has particularly affected students attending E-learning these days.
Ramesh Rai, a class 12 student studying in one of the private schools in Paro, and currently living in Pangthang has been dealing with the poor mobile network. Lessons on Google classrooms take time to open. He had incidences of not being able to submit assignments on time. “Forget about 3G, we have to make do with a 2G network most of the time. With the poor mobile network, it takes days to download files sent by our teachers through Google Classroom,” he said.
Ramesh is forced to visit places and friends’ houses in search of better mobile networks. There are more than 30 students in the chiwog studying in various classes.
According to Pema Wangmo, the chiwog Tshogpa of Pangthang, the chiwog raised the issue with concerned offices several times through the Gewog Tshogde but it didn’t bear any fruits till date. “It is difficult even to contact people within the chiwog. We use social media apps like WeChat, Messenger and Telegram but due to poor mobile network, we cannot operate. We receive only 2G and sometimes we get 3G. Moreover, houses located in deep valleys face tough time even to call,” she said.
According to the locals, the mobile network in upper Pangthang is better but in lower Pangthang, only 2G is available. They added it is troublesome for students who have to study online.
Bhutan Telecom office in Damphu said they did not receive any complaint. However, the office agreed to visit the chiwog soon. They clarified that installing a network tower stands a slim chance due to less population and smartphone users. There are just about 400 people.
“Pangthang chiwog is receiving mobile network from Dubpi tower but since the tower lies behind valley it could not provide reliable network signal to the chiwog. However, we will look into the severity of the issue and we will work out for additional sector to the existing tower. Accordingly, we will try to propose budget in the 2021 fiscal year to provide a better mobile network to the chiwog,” said Phurba, the Manager of Bhutan Telecom in Tsirang.
The chiwog also does not have a reliable TashiCell network. A team from TashiCell will also visit the chiwog in the coming weeks to assess the issue.
Meanwhile, with class twelve students joining schools next month, things might get better for Ramesh.
Pema Tshewang
