If you think technology is culture or location neutral, think again. A few years ago I decided to go in for a good (meaning speedy) broadband connection in Bangalore and rang up Airtel. They came to my house pronto, took filled-up form, cheque and proof of this and that, and promised to deliver in four days. They came again, punctually as promised, with modem and phone and set up both broadband and landline connection.
In these years, the service has seldom been disrupted and on the couple of times that it was someone came and set things right within two or three hours. Much impressed, when the wife and I decided to set up house in Kolkata, I did the same, called Airtel. They came pronto and went through the same process and promised to deliver in a few days.
Then the fun began. The attitude and manner of the ground-level staff who would do the job at my end were far different from that of the sales people who had taken the application. They said they would swing a wire from the road, up three floors, through a window and it would trail across room and corridor to wherever I wanted the setup. No, I said, there is concealed wiring and a box on the landing where your wires will come and join up with the apartment’s internal wiring. I don’t want looping wires going across room and corridor, not after paying a pile for the concealed wiring.
After much haggling it came out that they did not have an underground cable down the road to the apartment complex and no agreement with the housing coop to put up their pillar in the complex from where their wires could access the complex ducts. After more than a month when I returned to Bangalore, I was still out by a few thousand rupees and no connection, wondering how I would get my money back. But soon there was a refund cheque in the letterbox and a regret letter. I felt a bit mollified. At least I did not have to chase them for my money.
This time, back in Kolkata, I decided to go to good old BSNL and landed up at their pleasant customer service centre at Ballygunge Place. The staff were helpful and I chose a high-speed combo connection for broadband and phone, was promised delivery in a week and was ready to sing the praise of BSNL. Only, there was a small hitch, I couldn’t ask for and get the facility to make international calls (ISD) straightaway. I would have to apply for it at the appropriate telephone exchange after I got my first bill. Why? The staff at the counter were helpless. Those were the rules.
I asked to see a senior officer and thus began a saga. He made several internal calls and said, I can help you only when you get your landline number and it is activated and you have filled up this form. The next day someone came and installed the phone, using the internal wiring, and the day after that the line got activated. (No two events happen on the same day in BSNL, I realised; all activity is in separate silos.)
More From This Section
After a few days when I went out of town, I was back at the office of the senior official, form duly filled in, to get the ISD facility going. But there was a hitch. On the form I needed to get my signature verified by either a gazetted officer or a bank officer. What for? I had already given my proof of identity when I applied for the connection in the first place. The official made internal calls, sent me to the chief accounts officer, who took me to an even higher official.
No, you have to get your signature verified; those are the rules; it is printed in the form. Why this additionality, when Airtel does not need it and why will my passport or driving licence not do? My problem was that my gazetted officer friends had all retired like me and my account was with State Bank of India in Bangalore. This was an additional caution because of chances of “misuse” (international calls could run the meter quite a bit), private operators did not have our receivables problems. Besides, in these days of core banking, any SBI official should be able to call up your Bangalore signature and certify it. I said I knew bank officials well, having worked in SBI long ago myself. What they can and will do are two different things. Why was “misuse” such an issue in Kolkata and not in Bangalore? This got him quite hot under the collar. So if I can’t get the verification then end of story, I asked. No, he said, try the bank and if you fail get back to me, behaving every inch like a sarkari boss doing me a favour.
The bank manager refused to verify my Bangalore signature, as I had feared. He eventually did; why and how is a story too long to tell. So there I was again, application form for ISD duly filled in. Then I had to journey to another office to deposit it and my connection was done. But no broadband connection still. So next day someone came and installed a modem, only for me to realise it was the wrong type — meant for a fixed desktop and not to make the whole apartment a wireless local area so that I could use my laptop to access the Net from whichever room I liked.
So the next day they changed the modem. The next day someone came and configured it and the connection worked, but only for the night. Frantic calls and it was discovered that the modem, bearing a name like Nokia Siemens Network, was faulty. So the next day it was changed and the next day the new modem was configured again. So now I am the proud owner of a BSNL combo connection — nearly a month after applying, after four visits to two BSNL offices, countless phone calls to them and endless argumentation. The time and energy spent over it must make it the most valuable connection in the world.