In Lumpo, one of the last villages in the district close to the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh, a government-funded 4G tower of Airtel began offering services last week, enabling locals to access the new age of digital economy. Reliance Jio, Airtel's main competitor, has already established a presence in Dirang, 38 km from Bomdila -- a neighbourhood between Tawang and the state capital Itanagar.

 

It plans to connect Jang (98 kilometres from Dirang) by mid-May and Tawang (40 kilometres from Jang) by the end of June. According to officials, the communication tower would give the local population access to a variety of services.

 

Most residents of Lumpo and the surrounding villages now have their own vehicles thanks to improvements in the road system, but in the absence of a data network, they must travel for hours to access banking, schooling, shopping, government services, etc.

 

“We have been using mobile phones for the last 10-12 years on the BSNL network but data doesn't work. Airtel 4G has just started and now we are able to transact using Google Pay, PhonePe here. Google is also working well now. Online videos are also working,” Dorjee, an electrician based out of Lumpo told PTI.

 

Aerially, Lumpo is around 3-5 km from LAC and about 115 km from the Tawang district administrative centre. While Jio has 10 tower sites on the Indo-Bangla border in Tripula, 19 on the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya, as well as on the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram and Manipur, Airtel has increased telecom services on the Tawang border.

 

In total, Jio has 457 locations near international borders. 383 sites make up Airtel. According to Dorjee, residents must transfer their children to Tawang town for education because even minor academic uncertainties cannot be resolved in the hamlet.