Mobile internet services back in Manipur after five months

Internet services in Manipur were snapped on May 3 after violence engulfed the state. Broadband services had been conditionally restored following a government order on July 25.

A member of N Biren Singh’s told The Indian Express that the decision has been relayed to the relevant teams and it is likely that mobile internet service will be resumed within a few hours. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

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Nearly five months after mobile internet services were snapped in Manipur, the facility was restored on Saturday afternoon, hours after Chief Minister N Biren Singh announced the same.

The internet services, both mobile internet and broadband, were snapped in Manipur on May 3, the day violence first engulfed the state. The internet ban, first imposed for a period of five days, continued to be extended for five days at a time, citing the law-and-order situation in the state. Biren announced on Saturday, “As a precautionary step to prevent unwanted incidents, the state government had imposed a ban on the internet. But from today, the internet will be restored.”

Explained

Phase-wise restoration

The ban on internet services, both mobile and broadband, was imposed on May 3 and continued through a series of extensions as ethnic violence engulfed Manipur. With the state government, which justified the ban by citing efforts to check rumours, drawing sharp criticism, the ban on broadband services was conditionally lifted on July 25.

This comes after the Manipur government issued a show cause notice to Airtel over mobile internet services being available to unauthorised mobile numbers in some areas of Churachandpur and Bishnupur on September 20. On Saturday, Singh announced that two officers of Airtel have been suspended in connection with this incident. While mobile internet services – which is how most people access the internet – have been banned continuously for the last four-and-a-half months, broadband services had been conditionally restored on July 25.

At that time, while creating provisions for the restoration of broadband services, the order had stated that the suspension of mobile internet services would continue to be in place, citing that “there are still apprehensions that the spread of disinformation and false rumours through social media platforms… and sending bulk SMS, for facilitating and or/mobilization of mobs of agitators and demonstrations, which can cause loss of life and/or damage to public/private property…”

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