Love in the time of SMS

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), first to come to the valley just over a year ago, has already logged 1.20 lakh subscribers and demand is a whopping 10 lakh more. Airtel has 54,000 takers. And it can’t keep pace.

In Kashmir, unlike in other places, the entry of mobiles is not just about the thrill of a quickie SMS or the rat-a-tat romance of messaging. It’s a grim necessity. Though fewer crossfires and grenade blasts occur, staying out after dusk is still cause for worry, and mobiles are a 24/7 link to families.

In Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, festivities jam the networks. In Kashmir, it’s not Diwali, Eid or even Valentine’s. Fear and apprehension clog the waves every time there’s news of a landmine, a grenade blast or an encounter.

‘‘I had left home to shop at Lalchowk. I was yet to reach when there was a blast nearby. Within seconds my mother called. For the next 10 minutes, my phone rang, and I kept telling family members I was safe,’’ says 26-year-old insurance agent Naseer Ahmad Kabo.

Don’t forget, there is also a huge landline shortage. There are just 1.20 lakh telephones in the Valley and people have to wait at least three years to get a connection. Around 30,000 applications have piled up in the BSNL offices because the infrastructure can’t keep up. ‘‘I applied for a phone (landline) five years ago. And the wait is still on,’’ says Shahnawaz Khan, correspondent for US-based Free Speech Radio. ‘‘I made thousands of visits to the BSNL offices, but they say there is no feasibility in my area.’’ This despite the fact that 28-year-old Khan lives in Eidgah, in downtown Srinagar, just three km from the BSNL headquarters. He says he would be lost without his newly acquired cellphone. ‘‘I feel connected to the world even though there are network problems,’’ he says.

‘‘There is a need to improve our network coverage,’’ agrees BSNL’s Mufti Masharib. The company plans to expand its web of towers—located along the national highway, Srinagar and other towns—from the current 35 to 116. Competitor Airtel, which provides services only along the highway, plans to cover the entire valley before March 2005.

A chunk of BSNL’s users are young people. ‘‘The elderly still find it difficult, but the youngsters are crazy,’’ says Masharib. ‘‘Even when older people subscribe, the cell is generally used by the younger generation.’’

‘‘It’s freedom,’’ says Iram, a Class XII student in Srinagar. ‘‘We can speak to anyone at liberty,’’ she says. Her friend and classmate Jyoti says mobiles have helped ease parental restrictions. ‘‘Earlier, there was no privacy. You couldn’t get a call from a friend at home,’’ she says. ‘‘And even if you were brave and took a call, there was no way to talk.’’ Jyoti made her first call to Iram. ‘‘I couldn’t believe we could do this in Kashmir,’’ she says. Iram can’t get over how life has changed. ‘‘We keep messaging each other. The fear of parents is over.’’

But the teenagers, both under 18, don’t really have total freedom. ‘‘The bills,’’ says Jyoti, ‘‘are a major problem’’. Currently, their parents pay for their chats. ‘‘This limits our fun. We always try to keep the amount low, so that our folks don’t object,’’ says Iram.

For 25-year-old Firdous Ahmad, who runs an electronics store, the mobile is a love toy. ‘‘It has turned my love life around,’’ he says. ‘‘I used to be busy with work and was hardly able to leave the store. Now I can work and keep dates with my girlfriend,’’ he says happily. ‘‘Earlier, it was difficult to talk on the landline at work.’’ Ahmad is now an obsessive SMSer.“Mobiles are great entertainment, especially as we don’t have a life after dark,’’ says Ahmad.

Business is booming for the providers. Masharib says Kashmir tops the average revenue per unit (ARPU) across the country. And sellers aren’t doing too bad either. ‘‘Mobiles are my bread and butter now,’’ says Ajaz Ahmad, 32, a shopkeeper who switched from electronics to cellphones. ‘‘We are perhaps selling more camera phones than even Delhi.” In Kashmir, the tax on sets is limited to four per cent against the 12 per cent charge on electronics.

Yet it’s not that easy to get your hands on a cellphone. Apart from the huge demand, every subscriber requires security clearance. ‘‘We are aware of the apprehensions of security agencies that mobiles be kept away from militants. So we strictly implement the rules,’’ says an Airtel official. ‘‘We send our people to check a subscriber’s antecedents and only then process the application.’’

After an initial hesitation to allow mobile services in Kashmir, cellphones have become a hit with the police and security forces too. The army doesn’t allow its men to subscribe to mobile services for security reasons, but several senior officers have been given permission. The police and the paramilitary forces, however, feature prominently on the cell roster.

‘‘It has helped us keep in touch with our sources,’’ says a police officer. ‘‘Earlier, anybody who wanted to give us information had to call on a landline, but now senior officers are always available.’’ Recently, a flesh-trade racket was unearthed after cops tapped the mobile conversations of suspects.

Though police and security officials don’t publicly acknowledge it, mobiles are a boon when it comes to tracking suspects. ‘‘We don’t record conversations. But if a cell is recovered, we know which numbers have been called and that is helpful,’’ says Gopal Sharma, Director General of Police.

And there was the time militants conducted a suicide attack outside the chief minister’s residence last year. ‘‘We got a call from a civilian inside the shopping complex where the militants were hiding,’’ says a police officer. ‘‘He gave us information about their numbers and even the weapons they were carrying. We struck the room where they were holed up and it was a clean operation. All the civilians were rescued without harm.’’

Mobile entry to the valley was delayed by six months because security agencies wouldn’t clear it. Now, they’re known to digitally record conversations and access records of both BSNL and Airtel.

In fact, that’s precisely why people who have mobiles in the militancy-infested villages of Pulwama, 35 km from Srinagar, keep them on silent mode during the day and don’t take them out in public. They are scared that if word gets out, their mobiles might attract militants to their homes.