Mobile internet is facing lot of criticism across the India owing to numerous reasons such as limited access, pathetic speed and high price. As the data charges are getting higher gradually, those in Kerala have opted for an innovative way to protest against the rise in data charges through an internet hartal.
Today, October 31, the data subscribers in Kerala will be disconnecting the connections and it is dubbed All Kerala Internet Hartal. Those who organized the hartal have claimed that the reason is to protect against the day to day increase in data pack prices. Also, this protest is targeted at AVoId (carries such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea) that have caught up with enormous users.
While the service providers have not taken any step to reduce the prices of data packs even after complaints from subscribers, it appears like the hartal would help in stressing the same to the other end.
The main reason for the data pack prices to go up is the advancement of messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, Hike and others that have left a major brunt on the revenue of SMS. Due to the increase in the usage of these services, the telecom providers have to maintain enough spectrums for which they pay huge rents and this forces them to generate the maximum possible profit. Of course, the telecos can do this by offering cheap internet services, but this is lacking.
Those who are participating in the hartal have come up with analogies from history and one of them recalls the Bread Strike in England that forced the bread makers to reduce the price of their offerings as they were not sold for few days. This protest clearly shows the poor state of internet in the country and some real revolution has to take place.
