Work from home a nightmare for techies near ORR

BENGALURU: Work from home is turning out to be a daily nightmare for IT professionals residing along the stretch of Balagere Road, Panathur Dinne and Gunjur Road, all within 4 km of the Outer Ring Road.

For, the local cable operator has established a monopoly over distribution of internet connectivity and allegedly refuses to allow any of the major players enter the area.Video calls dropping, client calls abruptly cut off, or calls dying during trouble shooting, many of them involving international customers, are common occurrences in the lives of over 5,000 residents here.

Repeated pleas to their internet provider and open or covert attempts to bring in other providers have failed due to the clout wielded by Praveen B L of Zednet, who is the undisputed leader here.

IT professionals spoke to The New Indian Express from various apartments, but insisted that their names be changed. The affected individuals have just launched a petition on change.org. The petition, addressed to the Chief Minister and Police Commissioner among others, stated that they were at the mercy of a local cable operator.

“He has tie-up with only Metronet/Railwire and does not allow any stable service provider like Airtel, Tata, Act, JioFiber, etc. to come to these areas, threatening to cut the installation wires or even beat up the people of the other Internet Service Providers who come to do installation,” it said. The petition said that their jobs were at stake during the pandemic due to this poor connectivity issue.

Praveen Gowda (name changed), a software professional, said that it is tough to even reach Zednet to sort out the internet issues. “Somehow, we are trying to manage by using mobile hotspots or gadgets like dongles. But we need high speed, unlimited connection to do our jobs smoothly,” he said. Another resident said that nearly 85 per cent of the IT professional here are not locals.

“We are mostly from North and the Eastern parts of the country and also Andhra Pradesh. The fact that we do not know local politics and have no influence in the area gives the concern an edge over us.” 

S Karthik, a resident, said, “Our apartment issued NoCs to Airtel, Jio and Tata to give us the connection. We came to know through employees there that they were worried due to threats from Zednet staff.”Praveen denied all the charges against him and his company. “I am only one of the partners at Zednet. All charges are cent per cent false. I am not some goonda. I have a background in the telecom industry for 20 years and am running this business for 11 years here,” he claimed.

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