Chennai: Deep sea fishing vessel owners in Chennai are a worried lot owing to several issues with BSNL satellite phone services. The phones, distributed six years ago by the govt for emergencies during fishing activities, are now crippled by SIM replacement delays and slashed talk time. Deep sea fishing boat owners’ association secretary B Muthukumar complained that when his SIM card got damaged recently, he was unable to replace it.Compounding the issue, recharge costs have skyrocketed in the last five years. When the phone was provided, the monthly top-up charge cost 1,800, of which the talk time value was 800. Then it was hiked to 3,965 with a talk time value of 1,800. The top-up charge has now increased to 4,131, while the talk time value has plummeted to 360. Also, this phone has only ‘outgoing’ facility. Making matters worse, BSNL does not provide services regarding replacement of SIM cards or recharging for the satellite phones, said boat owner A Arulkumar. “Due to this, even for BSNL phone top-ups, we have to depend on private service providers, hiking costs further,” he said.When TOI contacted BSNL’s public relations officer B Venkataravanaiah, he said there was no issue with regard to replacing the SIM cards. Fisheries department assistant director (Kasimedu) Thirunageswaran was not available for comment.Even with all these issues, these devices have been lifesavers. Before this phone was provided to fishermen, five to six fishers would go missing every year. Similarly, half a dozen cases of boats drifting away due to cyclones would be reported. These incidents have reduced now.
