Broadband internet services to be restored within 72 hours

SRINAGAR — After remaining suspended for nearly seven months, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is all set to restore broadband internet services in the Valley within the next 72 hours.

Official sources said that the technical team has been working to create a firewall, which will thwart the attempts of consumers to access social media sites.

Reliable sources further added that the broadband internet services would likely be restored within the next 72 hours in the Valley. They informed that the government-run-cellular company BSNL has bought a firewall, adding that the technical teams are working on it.

Sources in the administration, however, said that the BSNL cellular company had already been asked to restore the broadband services in the Valley, but the delay in restoring the services was due to the task of blocking the social media sites.

“There is provocation from across the Line of Control (LoC) through the social media applications. Therefore, at this point of time, it was mandatory to thwart such kind of provocations by creating firewalls to maintain peace and law and order in Jammu and Kashmir,” sources said.

Pertinently, the services were suspended in the wake of the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status (Article 370) and bifurcation of the erstwhile State into two Union Territories—J&K and Ladakh on August 5 last year.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration has restored broadband internet services as well as 2G mobile data services in Jammu region while only 2G mobile internet services have been restored in the Valley by imposing curbs on social networking sites.

The restoration of internet services in Jammu and Kashmir followed the Supreme Court directions on January 10 this year in the case of Anuradha Bhasin Vs Union of India and others.