Flip side: Prison jammers affect Gilgit cellular services

Irate customers lodge complaints with service providers.

GILGIT:

Cellular phone service in Gilgit has suffered because of government-installed jammers to check activities of inmates in two jails of the capital city, officials and other sources said on Thursday.

“Yes jammers have been installed inside jails to check activities of inmates,” Mohammad Usman, a senior district administration official told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

He said that the decision was taken after complaints of mobile phone usage by inmates increased. “Under the law, the inmates are entitled for a facility of landline phone alone and that too, in the presence of police authorities at jails,” he said, adding that this practice is in use all over the country.

He said that four jammers, two each in main jail and sub jail of Gilgit have been installed. It has been more than two weeks since services of all the mobile networks in Gilgit have suffered adversely. However, people weren’t aware of the installation of jammers because the government didn’t announce it in advance.

“We can neither make a call nor send an SMS since past two weeks,” said Tufail Ahmed, a businessman of the area upset at the development. As the issue turned grave this week, users of cellular phones approached their respective service centres with a host of complaints.

“We have taken up the issue with higher-ups in Islamabad as it has led to an awkward situation for us,” said an official of a major cellular company. “We are paying millions of rupees to the government of Pakistan and thus, expect them to apprise us of their actions that affect our service, in advance,” he said, adding that at least 10 jammers have been placed in various localities of the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th,  2011.