Even though it has been more that three weeks since cyclone Amphan struck the city, residents of Salt Lake are waiting for their telecom networks — wired and wireless —to come back to life.

Students of the township are missing online classes, professionals are often getting logged unexpectedly out of webinars while patients are missing on online medical consultations across the township.

All this while most call centres of cable operators or telecom majors are either not picking up calls or are assuring their customers that “services will be restored in the next 72 hours”.

BE Block resident Avishek Ranjan Bera, who is pursuing a PhD in bioinformatics, said there was no internet connection in his house.

“I am a Hathaway subscriber and have been without broadband connection since the cyclone struck. I am not being able to download my papers and access server-based tools for my research,” said Bera, adding that multiple calls to the service provider’s helpline went unanswered.

Utpal Sinha of AJ Block has had no internet since the cyclone struck a full three weeks ago. “I am a teacher and it’s very difficult to conduct online classes without stable internet. I’ve been doing them without video for three weeks now as too much data is getting consumed,” he says.

After repeated queries, Hathway, Sinha’s internet service provider, informed him that they would take “some more time” to restore connection. “As compensation they are offering to extend the duration of my contract with them but I don’t care for that. I need service now. I would have quit anyway if I hadn’t already paid for a year’s connection. My friends who were on quarterly contract have quit after Amphan. Another friend was forced to buy a dongle. My son lives in Spain and it’s frustrating to not be able to hold decent video calls with him at such a difficult time. I can’t believe we’re going through such problems in the 21st century.”

Most cable operators The Telegraph spoke to listed out a plethora of problems for the delay in restoration of services.

A senior Airtel official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as they were not informed of tree-cutting and removal undertaken by various agencies, optical fibre cables got accidentally snapped. This spelt a virtual blackout for Salt Lake homes.

Sujoy Saha, a representative of the Cable TV and Broadband Operators’ Association, who also gives out Hathway and Alliance Broadband internet connections, said replacing snapped cables had emerged as a financial burden. Several operators were looking to reduce costs and this was also hampering restoration of service.

According to Saha, the overhead cable cost, including installation charges, comes around Rs 20-25 per metre, depending on the quality of the cable. “These are our own expenses and we don’t get any support from banks and financial institutions,” said Saha, adding that cash management had become a challenge post-cyclone.

“We have never seen such damage. Thousands of trees have fallen, causing major fibre cuts. We are trying to restore services as fast as we can,” said Saha.

In addition to this he also pointed out that they had taken some time as most technicians had gone home due to the lockdown. According to him, they had to send in cars to places as far as Serampore in Hooghly to transport them and are having to arrange for their stay.

A BSNL official said cable replacement was both labour intensive and time-taking, According to the official, it takes a skilled technician to figure out where the fault is and then restore connection. According to the official, many operators had tried to do patchwork repairs but they did not work.

Another local cable operator, who gives cable and internet connections in Salt Lake and Kankurgachhi, said that mounting costs and demand for increased wages by technicians had burnt a hole in their pocket.

According to Shyamal Sarkar, the cable operator, the markets where optic fibre cables can be purchased were shut.

“There is a shortage of cable as the market was closed because of the lockdown. Shops and godowns were closed, and cable and equipment were inaccessible despite being in stock. This has caused the delay. Some stockists are charging extra for the cables as well,” said Sarkar while adding that a drum of optic fibre cable is now selling for nearly Rs 3500, up by nearly Rs 600 as compared to earlier market rates.