Wherever you go, network doesn’t follow

Security concerns over ‘disconnected’ BU campus

We were told that there were restrictions on telecom operators installing mobile towers within 100 metres of educational institutions, says a Bangalore University student.— FILE PHOTo: nagara gopal

In October 2012, an incident that took place in the vast and densely forested Jnana Bharathi campus of Bangalore University (BU) left the city shaken. A student was gang-raped not far from the Centre for Gandhian Studies, exposing the gaping loopholes in the security in place on the campus. Host to at least two big student communities – from BU and from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU) – the incident pushed both the police as well as BU to review security.

Quite a bit has changed since, students say, except one – they are left with bad or no mobile network connectivity in most parts of the 1,000-odd acre campus.

“For instance, if you are coming from Mysuru Road towards the Psychology Department, there is no signal. In the event of something wrong happening on that stretch, you are left vulnerable as you cannot even alert anyone,” said a student.

Another spoke about how walking within the campus after sunset is still a risky affair, though streetlights have been installed since the incident in most places and police patrolling has increased, simply because a mobile phone, which could be used as a safety device, is rendered useless.

“We were told that there were restrictions on telecom operators installing mobile towers within 100 metres of educational institutions. But for a campus as vast as this one, it is hard not to have more towers. We don’t have strong signals even inside the hostel,” said an NLSIU student.

More towers soon

Meanwhile, BU is in the process of installing more towers for two reasons: to give more areas of the campus mobile connectivity, as well as to save on its landline bills.

BU Registrar (Administration) K.K. Seethamma said one tower of a private telecom company had been installed last year behind the university library. “But it was not very successful as it did not cover as many areas as expected. Now, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is installing another one behind the Kannada Department. Depending on its success, we will see if we should install one more,” she said.