No work-from-home, no lambi baatein: How poor connectivity troubles Noida

In a world where technology is keeping people connected, the denizens of Noida seem to have been left out. Residents of a number of sectors in Noida – Sectors 93, 137 and 143 – and most of Greater Noida West, have been dealing with poor cellphone connectivity for over three years now. Missed calls have resulted in missed professional opportunities and problems on the personal front for many Noida residents. Naturally, they are irked by the poor network connectivity in their homes. After repeated complaints with costumer care executives of various telecom operators, the residents have resigned to living with it. While some have to rely on online calls made through Wi-Fi connections, others rely on landline phones.
‘Work-from-home not possible’
For many, working from home becomes a tedious task as they are unable to make or receive calls from home. Since the work-from-home arrangement requires the employee to be available on call throughout the day, many have started opting out of it.
“I have to spend at least 16 hours at office sometimes as I cannot go back home to work because of network issues. We cannot ask our bosses or colleagues to call us on Whatsapp or Skype because many times they are travelling and they may not be getting an internet connection. Not having proper connectivity at home has left me working for more hours,” says Anup Soni, a software engineer who is a resident of Gulshan Ikebana, Sector 143.



Shefali Madan, a resident of Gaur Green Avenue in Greater Noida West, had to hire a nanny to look after her one-year-old daughter because she could not work from home. “I went back to work on the condition that I will work from home three days of the week, which would let my husband and me spend time with our daughter. However, because of poor network, both of us had too many issues while working from home. I ended up hiring a nanny since I spend five days of the week at office,” says Madan, who works at an IT firm in NSEZ.


‘Missed assignment and got bad appraisal because boss couldn’t reach me’
Gagandeep Singh, who works at a telecom firm in Sector 126, believes that the reason why his appraisal was not good last year was because he missed out on an assignment due to no network coverage at his residence in Sector 137. “There have been a number of times when I have missed important calls from work and I have told colleagues at office to always call me on WhatsApp or Skype because network issues don’t permit normal calls. However, I once missed my boss’ call when he needed some urgent work done. So he called my colleague instead. I think isi reason se uska appraisal mere se achha hua,” says Madan, a resident of Supertech Ecociti.

‘My child got injured and the school could not reach me’
And it’s not just the professional life of Noidawallahs which is getting affected because of bad network. People are also unable to reach out to their families in times of emergencies. “Once my nine-year-old son got hurt at school and I only got to know when I went to pick him up from school in the afternoon. When I asked the teachers why they didn’t inform me, they said that they could not get through. My husband was travelling abroad, so he was unreachable too,” says Amita Vardhan, a resident of Paras Tiera apartments in Sector 137. She has now installed a landline at her residence to avoid such instances in the future.
A similar situation happened with Greater Noida West resident Vikas Vashishth when his daughter could not contact him when he and his wife were out for some work. “Our daughter was sleeping, so we left her a note saying that we were going for an emergency meeting. However, after she woke up, she tried to reach us but could not. When we returned, she was absolutely exasperated. We decided to get a landline connection after that,” says Vashishth, a resident of Panchsheel Greens society.


‘Have ported mobile network four times’
According to residents, the connectivity issue is prevalent across all mobile operators. “I have ported my mobile number four times across different network operators, hoping for better signal at my residence, but none of them have been of any help. Porting number is a tedious task and it is frustrating to see that none of the networks work well in the area,” says Aditi, a resident of Sector 137.
Many have opted for multiple sim cards to see which network works better on their phone. “I have two sim cards of different network operators in my phone but neither of them get a signal at home. I mostly rely on WhatsApp calls when I’m at home,” says Pradeep Panda, a resident of Purvanchal Royal Park, Sector 137.



‘No result despite several complaints to customer care’
Residents have raised the issue with the customer care service of all the network providers but the problem has refused to go away. “Even when we try calling the customer care service, the call gets disconnected because of bad network. However, many resident from our society have complained about the network issue but we get the standard reply that it is being looked into,” says Richa Chopra, a resident of Grand Omaze in Sector 93B.
Manish Kumar, a resident of Arihant Arden in Greater Noida West, adds, “We have tweeted to the mobile network’s Twitter handles also and have complained to the government portal for consumer grievances as well. However, since the past three years, the situation has not become any better.”


According to Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Authority Of India, “These areas in Noida, such as Sector 121-137, Sector 93, along with regions in Greater Noida West are newly established, which is why we are waiting for the permissions from RWAs and relevant municipal authorities to install mobile towers and cell sites. Telecom operators are committed to provide robust network and seamless connectivity to the consumers and once permissions are obtained from the RWA and other local administrative authorities, towers will be deployed for the seamless connectivity.”