A studious and dedicated young teenager from Rajasthan’s Loonoo Khurd attracted attention last month when a picture of him studying atop of a hill was tweeted by former cricket Virendra Sehwag, as that was the only spot in his village where he could get network to attend online classes. Moved by his plight and the problems faced by his fellow villagers, India’s leading telecom company Airtel decided to help him study safely and comfortably from his home by setting up a mobile tower near his village. This was done using setting up of a ‘Cells on Wheels’ (COW) infrastructure near his house in Loonoo Khurd, Barmer, Rajasthan. The class VII student Harish, used to take his mobile phone up the hilltop – 2km from his residence – at 8 am every-day and came back home at 2pm after his classes got over. The village in which Harish lives is surrounded by the Aravali range where internet connectivity is limited to higher altitudes. After the matter got highlighted, on the very next day, Airtel team surveyed the area.
Keeping in mind the specific location of Harish’s residence the team decided to deploy a COW tower, which would also help in providing strong data connectivity to nearby villages as well. Within a month, “COW’ mobile tower in Harish’s village was set up and made functional which has helped eliminate the problem of poor internet connectivity, not just for Harish’s village, but also for the nearby villages who are now enjoying a speed upto 50mbps on the Airtel 4G network. As Harish started getting the network in his home, he said,” I am very happy and I thank Airtel Team. Earlier I walked 2 KM and sat on the hilltop to attend online classes. Thanks to Airtel for setting up the network in our area, not only me, many students like me can easily study while sitting in their homes.. thanks for saving our lives also in this Pandemic period.”