It's a Net loss for Bangalore's citizens

When software engineer Rashmi was given the option of working from home by her employer, a leading software firm, she could only thank her stars. This young techie had the enviable option of pursuing her career without compromising on spending time with her four-month old son.
However, now she is hand-tied. She does not have a broadband connection, despite applying for it in May this year.
"In the month of October they told me the system is being upgraded and I still don't have the connection. They keep blaming other sections," says she.
The city's top service providers confirm that they have been unable to issue any new connections or expand existing bandwidths since October this year.
While they used to issue at least 60 connections per day, it's been zero for the past two months.

The reason for this stagnation is that the Bruhat Banglore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is in the process of laying underground ducts for all cables including the optical fibres required for broadbands.
Principal General Manager, BSNL, Shubendhu Ghosh says, "In a new area coming up, if ducts are already put in place before the area is developed then the service provider can straightaway put cables and service can be provided. What we don't want is to have to wait for the ducts to come."
The BBMP says they can't allow service providers to lay ducts according to their requirement.
Citing the municipal corporation's decision to complete the job on its own as a reason, BBMP Commissioner Dr S Subramanya said, "The project is only to avoid haphazard cutting of roads and will take time."
The BBMP is yet to set a deadline for completion of the laying of the ducts across the city — not very good news for India's silicon valley which seems to be lagging behind in logging on.