Anticipating a spurt in work-at-home mode in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, Internet service providers in the State have agreed to step up the network capacity by 30-40% of the present capacity to meet the demand arising from the situation.
The decision was clinched at a meeting of representatives of various telecom service providers in Kerala Circle and officials of the Telecommunication Department convened by the Secretary, Electronics and IT, following a direction by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to look into the issue.
The decision will be beneficial for those working in IT institutions. The government has come out with a set of suggestions to avoid social gatherings in public places in view of COVID-19 spread. Telecom service providers have assured the government that they are well equipped to face the current situation.
The major part of Internet consumption in the State is made available through local servers. Moreover, global Internet traffic is very low compared to the overall consumption. So, increasing the capacity would not be difficult, service providers said.
Consumers have been directed to submit complaints regarding the low availability of Internet due to the spurt in consumption of Internet to the complaint redressal number of service providers or the State government call centre (155300). But complaints regarding insufficiency in the current network infrastructure should be strictly avoided.
The IT Department will also demand daily reports from various telecom service providers. By analysing these reports, remedial measures will be taken after bringing the sudden increase in consumption to the notice of service providers.
