Manipur government lifts ban on broadband internet services with conditions, restrictions on mobile net to continue

Manipur government on Tuesday lifted ban on broadband internet services in the state. The government ordered authorities to open the internet in a ‘liberalised manner’.

The ban on the internet services was imposed on May 3 after violence broke out between Maeiti community and Kuki tribals.

The Manipur government has repeatedly suspended mobile data services, including broadband as the violence continued in the later days. The Manipur government in its order stated that several services have been affected due to ban of services.

“The state government has reviewed the issues of the ban on internet since 03-05-2023 continuously without any break (except for the exempted cases) and considered the suffering of the common as the internet ban had affected important offices/ institutions, cohort of people on work from home basis, chartered Accountant firms, Lawyers, Health facilities, refuelling centres, recharging of electricity/ mobile, booking for LPG, educational institutions, Taxation related offices, other online based citizen centric services etc and made a considered decision to lift suspension in case of Broadband service conditionally in a liberalised manner subject to fulfilment of the following terms and conditions and taking up with all possible safeguards,” Manipur government’s order stated.

Conditions for resumption of broadband internet services

1. Connection will be only through static IP and that the subscriber concerned shall not accept any other connection other than allowed for the time being ITS0/ISP shall be be responsible for non-compliance of this condition);

2) No Wifi/Hotspots shall be allowed from any of the routers and systems using the connection at any cost by the subscnber concerned.

3) Media Access Control Address (MAC) binding at the system level or router shall be ensured with the help of ISP/7SP concerned.

4) Blocking of social media websites and VPNs at the local level will be ensured by the subscriber concerned

5) Subscriber shall have to ensure removal of any existing VPNs softwares from the system and not to install any new softwares/VPN App.

6) Enforcing physical monitoring by the subscriber concerned/ the concerned authority/officials of checking violation of the terms and conditions specified.