Team Herald
Panjim:
As the online-classes have set the trend going in the current pandemic, the study by the Goa University reveals that college students spend high amounts per month to get internet access, even in those situations where the connectivity is very poor.
The University has recommended that government should go for an Optical Fiber Network, which will not only help in improving the connectivity but also enable educational institutions to provide the students comparatively low-cost internet.
As per the study, on an average a college student spends Rs 333 per month to get access to the internet connectivity.
The survey reveals that students of Social Sciences faculty are paying at the rate of Rs 410 per month and Commerce and Management Studies spend Rs 404 monthly to get internet for their e-learning.
The lowest was the students of Natural Sciences faculty with Rs 325 per month.
It was interesting to note that the female students spend Rs 362 a month as against the male who spends Rs 340.
The service provider based analysis on the spending shows that the users of Government run- BSNL spends around Rs 620 per month-the highest amongst all service providers.
The users of Jio are spending the least at the rate of Rs 278 per month and Vodafone at the price of Rs 280 per month.
“From this, it can be inferred that the students are happy with the relatively slow connections of Jio and Vodafone due to less money they need to spend,” the survey concluded.
“The establishment of an optical fiber network will bring an end to the monopoly of some of the Internet Service Providers in the state and they will be forced to reduce their rates,” the study recommended.
Further, it is also found that as much as 61.8% of students use the mobile phone to get connected, and 33.8% of students use both mobile and laptops. Only 3.8% of the respondents use laptops to access the Internet. This will be a severe constraint for e-learning.
