Customers are charged for restoring dishes, antennas damaged in Hudhud
The DTH companies, meanwhile, are working at a snail's pace, restoring the dishes. (Photo: DC/File)
Visakhapatnam: Vizagites will not get their daily dose of sitcoms, soaps, reality shows or news for at least another 10-15 days, thanks to Cyclone Hudhud.
Restoration works are just halfway through after the cyclone caused extensive damage to infrastructure of Multi-System Operators and cable television networks. It’s the same case with Direct to Home services as the cyclone damaged innumerable household DTH antennas in the city.
The DTH companies, meanwhile, are working at a snail’s pace, restoring the dishes. And, all of them are charging customers for antenna repairs and replacements.
Ramakrishna Raju, who operates one of the five MSOs in the city, said, “We provide signals to almost 600 cable operators in the city. Most of the fibre optic network has been damaged and we are conducting the restoration works as fast as possible.”
“Most of the electronic equipment, like amplifiers, nodes and couplers are damaged. We are replacing almost the entire network in the city with new equipment and wires. As these equipment and wires are located outdoors, they are not covered by any insurance. It has caused us losses of Rs 4 crore,” Mr Raju added.
Damage to cable operators has also been extensive. A cable operator in the city said that because of broken cable wires at almost every area in the city, it would take at least 20 more days for the entire network to be restored.
DTH customer Nirav Verma said, “It has been more than 15 days since the Cyclone Hudhud hit Vizag. Name any essential commodity, milk, newspaper, food items, vegetables or petrol, everything was made available soon after the devastation. But, DTH operators are yet to restore their services.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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