Even top cops not getting traffic alert SMSes,sense technical glitch

“There is definitely some technical problem and we are trying to address it at an earliest,” said Alok Kumar,who was instrumental in starting the SMS alert service in the city. “ The Mumbai-based mobile group messaging company GupShup,that has designed the SMS alert service for us,was shortlisted as they have provided service to the traffic police in 10 other cities of the country.” But telecom experts reveal that there is a serious technical problem with the SMS service in Chandigarh.

“In less than a week after its launch in Chennai last month,around 11,000 people had signed up for the service. When the SMS alert was launched last year in Delhi,in first three days 21,240 subscribers had joined them. And in Chandigarh,after two weeks the number is just 1,499. It does not mean that very few people had sent SMS requests in Chandigarh for the service. Hundreds of subscribers have been told that they are on DND list,” said an engineer from BSNL. “It looks like proper work had not been done either by the company or by the Chandigarh traffic police prior to the launch of the service. It should have been a ‘world class service’ in Chandigarh. but sadly they have let the people down by poor service.”

In fact,the Chandigarh traffic police receives frequent calls from the subscribers as to what is the problem with the service. “ I got a call saying that they were not able to register the SMS alert service but I told them that they must be on DND. After the launch of the service I had received many such calls,” an employee at the traffic park said.

Interestingly,while as subscriber of telecom companies like BSNL,Airtel,Reliance get a welcome message or saying that you are on a DND list,there is no response to the SMS sent by Vodafone subscribers.