The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited employees faced a predicament as they were forced to visit houses of subscribers who lodged complaints, and they had to work as they are under essential services.
On Monday afternoon, the Fiber To The Home (FTTH) high-speed internet services in Anantapur district got disrupted along with some broadband services as the internet gateway at Bengaluru came under severe bandwidth stress as the load increased manifold with a majority of employees working from home.
As part of COVID-19 containment measures, people in Anantapur city remained at home and tried to connect through the FTTH and broadband services, but after 2 p.m. the bandwidth (actual speed of downloading from internet) started falling and stopped at 4.15 p.m.
The gateway upgradation and internet services restoration was likely to happen late in the night.
BSNL Senior General Manager Y. Siva Shankar Reddy said ordinary internet services through copper wired connections were functioning well and maintenance staff were attending to complaints.
The staff were moving around wearing masks and working with gloves wherever possible. However, they were worried as they could get infected while handling so many instruments, checking several others and speaking to customers directly.
