Inplant Training at BSNL — A Bitter Ho-Hum!

Surly its been a boring and dull summer holiday and last sunday I was asked by Arumugam to attend the BSNL Summer Training instead of staying at home uselessly. So Sadam Hussain, Arumugam, Suriya and obviously me, decided to register at the summer camp the next day. We woke up very early and started off to BSNL Community Hall which was about 9–10 kms away from my home.

Day I :

We reached the BSNL community hall and Facebook’s Check-in feature came just in time to my Opera Mobile 6 and helped me to check in my location for the first time. Although most of the places were not listed in the Facebook Places, I added my home as ‘Parithi HQ’ and the ‘BSNL Community Hall’ and checked in. The hall was pretty nice and it was the first time I got to attend such a conference-type hall. All the desks had its own microphone with a ‘speak’ button and we all had lots of fun playing with it. First day, the BSNL Chief inaugurated the camp and gave a introductory speech about the evolution of telecommunications in India and how BSNL came into existance.

And a marketing guy also wanted us and invisibly forced us to buy a BSNL SIM card stating that there was no good relationship between the students and BSNL. The Chief wanted us to realize that all other private telecom operators such as AirTel, Aircel, and the like, have their respective owners. So by using them, we are actually giving money to a single person which doesn’t come to Indian government in any way. He wished everyone of us to use BSNL’s services and help the government which may in-turn help us back in the form of urban or rural development. He also mentioned that all other operators transmit signals at higher signal signal strengths which are very hazardous to the humans, while BSNL uses a safe signal strength which is half of the other operators’s signal. Although his words are true, he wouldn’t convince the younger generation to use it, since we need flexible recharge facilities, free texting and cheaper call costs.

His speech was followed by another BSNL staff who taught about the landline services how things transmit from one end to an other end. Since it was the first day, they had planned the schedule properly so we had to leave the premises at afternoon itself. Then we headed out to the theatre to the big time movie, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3D’.

Day 2:

In Day 2, we studied about the transmission of data in a Broadband connection and a Dial up connection and how these things work. And in the afternoon, we headed out to the National Internet Backbone (NIB) to see the various hardware used in transmitting these datas. We were not allowed to use our mobile phones and therefore I couldn’t take any snaps with my Ike. The hardware kept there were very expensive crossing over Rs.6 lakhs per equipment. They include Cisco routers, BTS towers, etc. We finished the tour inside the building and we headed back home.

Day 3:

On this day, we studied how the Wireless communications work. They include the Mobile Communication, WiMax, WiFi and the other wireless communications. We had about three presentations and then we were told to head out to the streets and take a Technological survey among the public to train ourselves with regards to the TeleMarketing services. But no one did this perfectly, we shared the forms within ourselves and filled it with our colleagues there in the training. We were also accompanied by Abdul Jaleel on this day who had finished his summer training last week itself.

Day 4:

In Day 4, we had a theory class on how GSM and CDMA work. In the afternoon, we headed out the BSNL Telephone exchange, 2KM away from our community hall and we had seen practically how the hardware such as AXE switches, BTS towers, and others work. It was truly fascinating to see all these equipments and how they struggle to maintain those complex machines without any problems for 24 hours a day.

Day 5:

This was the last day of the training. We had a session on other wireless communications and we had no interest in listening to the lecture and I do not even know what they had taught this day. The training finally came to an end and we obtained our certificates and headed back home.

Overall, the course was mainly focused towards the Electronics and Electrical students, so it was boring for me rather being interesting since I’m a Computer Science student. But I have to admit that, it was fascinating to see the different kinds of the equipments they have in the main offices. So I should say, It was Worth It!