Nearly seven months after abrogation of Article 370, broadband services restored in Kashmir Valley

SRINAGAR: Nearly seven months after the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, the Jammu and Kashmir Administration on Thursday (March 5, 2020) restored the broadband services in Kashmir Valley. Earlier this facility had only been restored for government offices and other essential services in the Valley.

Mobile internet services were earlier restored in Kashmir by the J&K Administration. The Centre had suspended the internet services in the region following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year. 

The move to restore broadband services comes a day after the J&K Administration on Wednesday (March 4) lifted restrictions from the usage of social networking sites across the Union Territory. The directions to restore social networking sites on 2G in the Union Territory came after a review of the situation by the Jammu and Kashmir Home department.

The order issued on Wednesday is without the requisite whitelisted websites and it also stated that internet access shall be available across Jammu and Kashmir at 2G speed and “these services shall not be made available on pre-paid sim cards”. 

The order also added that for fixed-line internet, connectivity shall continue to be made available “with mac-binding at unlimited speeds”.

It may be recalled that landlines, postpaid mobile services, and internet facilities to essential services like hospitals were restored in phases in Kashmir in January 2020. The Jammu and Kashmir administration decided to ease the restrictions after the Supreme Court, on January 10, asked it to “review all orders suspending internet services forthwith”.

Ruling that “freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to practice any profession or carry on any trade, business or occupation over the medium of Internet enjoys constitutional protection under Article 19 (1) (a) and Article 19 (1) (g)”, the Supreme Court had said that “an order suspending internet services indefinitely is impermissible”.

The government had said, “Restriction upon such fundamental rights should be in consonance with the mandate under Article 19 (2) and (6) of the Constitution, inclusive of the test of proportionality.”

On January 18, 2020, pre-paid cellphone service (voice and SMS) was restored across the Union Territory and 2G mobile internet connectivity to 153 white-listed sites on post-paid cellphones in 10 districts of Jammu and two districts of Kashmir was also restored on the same day.