Government allows fixed-line, 2G mobile internet across Jammu and Kashmir

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir administration allowed limited mobile data services and fixed-line internet connectivity across the Union Territory from Saturday while still keeping broadband facilities out of the reach of netizens. Internet services were suspended in J&K on the night of August 4 last year, hours before Parliament ended the special status of the erstwhile state the next day.
Issuing an order to this effect on Friday night, J&K home department said internet speed would be restricted to 2G and the facility would be limited only to white-listed websites.“Access will be limited only to white-listed sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer-to-peer communication and virtual private network applications,” the order said.
Data services would be available on postpaid mobiles as well as prepaid SIM cards of such holders whose credentials have been verified as per the norms applicable for postpaid connections, the order said, adding: “For fixed-line internet connectivity, access will be limited only after Mac-binding.”
The order has listed around 300 white-listed websites, saying that white-listing of sites shall be a continuous process. “The administration has also decided to continue the communication/access facilities at e-terminals and internet kiosks for students, tourists, traders, etc.,” the order said.
Valley-based journalists, however, have been kept out of fixed-line and broadband facilities, which have been allowed to essential service providers and the tourism sector. To file their reports, they have been using the internet at the media facilitation centre set up by the government in the office of the director of information on Maulana Azad Road here.
Valley-based scribes have protested several times in the past at the Kashmir Press Club, demanding restoration of their internet facilities, but the government so far has remained unmoved.
The Supreme Court had on January 10 asked the J&K administration to review within a week all orders imposing curbs in J&K while holding that access to the internet is a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution.