The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday said that the high-speed internet will be restored in the entire region after more than 550 days of restrictions.
Rohit Kansal, the spokesperson for the government, said that it is being restored. “4G mobile internet services being restored in entire Jammu and Kashmir,” said Kansal.
On 5 August 2019, New Delhi clamped curfews in J-K and imposed a blanket communication ban. It ended up being the longest internet shutdown in any democracy, ever.
Mobile internet was restored in January 2020, however, was partly accesible as the government introduced a “blacklist”. In March 2020, social media and other websites were made accessible.
Despite at least three batches of plea to restore high-speed internet in J-K in the supreme court, the administration only allowed access in two of the districts, Udhampur and Ganderbal, in August 2020.
A United Kingdom-based VPN service recently calculated the cost of internet shutdowns in India, the leading country across the world, to be higher than $2.8 Billion. In 2020, for a total of 1,655 hours the internet was snapped in India.
