SHRI ASHOK PRADHAN INAUGURATES BSNL’s MOBILE SERVICE AT SIKANDRABAD IN UTTAR PRADESH

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The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Shri Ashok Pradhan has announced that mobile services would soon be started at Gulaothi, Debai, Anupshahar, Siyana, Pahasu, Shikarpur and Norora in Bulandshahar district in Uttar Pradesh (UP) during the current financial year. He was speaking at a function to inaugurate the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)’s mobile service at Sikandrabad(UP). today. The Minister said that the Bulandshahar telecom district has 47 electronic exchanges with a total switching capacity of the Secondary Switching Area(SSA) reaching to more than 84,000 lines including WLL and mobile. However, he expressed dissatisfaction over the lower tele-density of the SSA which stands at 2.3 percent. The Minister strongly advocated the need for telecom infrastructure in the District, especially in the rural areas.

Giving details of the development of telecom infrastructure in the country, Shri Ashok Pradhan stated that the total telephone connections in the country were only 2.15 crore in the year 1999 which has now reached 4.73 crore as on 31^st October, 2003. Similarly, mobile telephone connections have also reached 1.93 crore as on 31^st October, 2003 from mere 12 lakh in 1999. The tele-density of the country has reached 6.24% as on 31^st October, 2003 from mere 2.23% in 1999. As per the Telecom Policy, 1999, the tele-density of the country has been targeted to reach 7 by the year 2005 and 15 by the year 2010. The Government is confident to achieve these targets much earlier than planned because of the various steps taken by the Government for the development of the telecom infrastructure of the country, the Minister added.

On this occasion, the Minister announced to start the following services in Bulandshahar SSA very soon:-

1. The mobile services at Debai and Guwahati will be launched next week.
2. The mobile services at Narora, Sikarpur, Pahasu and Anupshahar will be launched by March, 2004.
3. 7000 lines NEAX exchange at Bulandshahar and 5000 lines NEAX exchange at Khurja will be repalced by 12000 lines new technology exchange by March, 2004.
4. 7000 lines TAX will be commissioned next year.
5. The integrated billing package DOTSOFT will be started on 26^th January, 2004. This will facilitate the issue of duplicate bills and on-line bill payment from all the customer service centers in the SSA.
6. Bulandshahar and Khurja City will be made poleless by laying cable upto the subscriber’s premises.