Airtel Nowhere

I stepped into the cab and told the driver to take me to “Zoo Road Tiniali,” the area where the Pratham Assam office is. Sitting in the back seat, I looked around at the lush, green plants and stout trees that lined the road we set off on. Small billboards stood atop metal poles on the stone divider that separated the driving lanes and announced:
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere
Airtel Everywhere


I switched on my Airtel phone (I swear this is not an Airtel commercial…) to let Mutum Ashok, the Assam State Coordinator, that I was on my way. The phone turned on and strangely gave me zero-bars of reception. Hmmm… but what about
Airtel Everywhere?
Airtel Everywhere?
Airtel Everywhere?

An hour later, while having lunch with Ashok on the patio of an outdoor restaurant in Guwahati, Assam’s main city, he explained to me that because of heavy insurgency-movements in the Northeastern states of India the Indian government blocks the signal of pre-paid telephones (like BOOST-mobile in the US) because the government believes insurgency groups could use prepaid phones to carry out their anti-state activities. No phone for 10 days.

He then explained that my Pratham-issued Reliance Datacard, which allows me to access the internet through the Reliance mobile phone network (this entry is basically going to be one long advertisement…) would not work either for the same reasons. No internet/email for 10 days. And so, no blogging for 10 days...


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