Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 8: BSNL today claimed that India’s picture will totally change after the Digital India is fully implemented in country.
This was stated by BSNL General Manager, Atul Sharma while talking to reporters here today along with other officers of the Organization.
He said like other parts of country BSNL J&K also observed Digital India week from July 1 to 7. During the week long programmes an exhibition was held at BSNL Exchange Trikuta Nagar. Besides a melas camp was held, a tour of school children was organized to BSNL Telephone Exchange and commissioning of NGN Exchange at Jammu.
He while highlighting the salient features of BSNL services for customers said it is providing free night calling from BSNL landline phones to all networks from May 1 this year and this un limited free night calling will be available from 9 pm to 7 am.
Besides, the BSNL has also introduced free roaming from June 15 this year. For its customers across the India, he said adding this facility will benefit existing customers as well as new BSNL mobile subscribers.
Mr Sharma said the BSNL has already launched the full mobile number portability from July 3 this year. Through this facility the customer can retain the same mobile number anywhere in India and the customer will not be required to change his mobile number on shifting and transfer from one State to another State.
He said in addition to it the BSNL is providing the facility of Data carry forward to its 2 G/3G mobile subscribers. The unused balance mobile data is added on to next recharge of BSNL 3 G prepaid data, he added.
He said in Jammu Telephone districts including Jammu Kathua and Samba there are 85 land line exchanges, 62,000 land line connections 1299 PCOs, 280 WIMAX connections, 14233 WLL connections, 28557, broad band connections, 3,51,257 GSM Mobile connections.
Besides there are 366 2 G Mobile Towers 176 3 G mobile towers, 23 WIMAX towers and 60 CDMA/WLL towers working in the Jammu telecom district under phase VII 21 New GSM sites out of 27 have already been commissioned in Jammu SSA.
On all India basis BSNL has provided 93.6 million connections throughout the country.
He said BSNL is further planning to introduce 23 WIFI hot spots in Jammu, Srinagar and Udhampur towns in J&K Circle which will provide high speed data to customers. Besides, J&K Circle will install 38 more mobile towers throughout the State Besides it is planning to provide 90000 mobile connections, 30,000 alone in Jammu SSA during the current financial year. In addition to it 14,000 broadband connections and 35000 landline connections will also provided during the financial year. Out of which 6000 broadband and 15,000 landline connections will be provided in Jammu, he added.
He said BSNL customer can dial 1500 for any assistance for landline and broadband services and for mobile services he can dial 1503.
He said the BSNL is only service provider for holy Amarnath pilgrims and the organization gives better coverage to them. He said the yesterday’s problem in signal at Baltal was due to snapping of cable due to digging by some new companies and the same was restored during the night.
Our Srinagar correspondent adds that BSNL GM DK Aggarwal who also held a press conference in the Summer Capital in connection with celebration of Digital India week has said that the poor broadband services in Kashmir Valley is due to single cable system spread on 300 kilometer long Srinagar-Jammu National Highway that often gets affected due to natural calamities. The General Manager said that the BSNL has installed 17 towers enroute Amarnath Cave and issued nearly 50,000 sim cards to the pilgrims for smooth services. He said each sim is valid for only 7 days. He said the services to Amarnath pilgrims are being provided on the directions of Government of India.
“In addition to 2G services at all stations enroute Holy Cave, 3G services have also been introduced at various stations. Optical Fibre connectivity, V-SAT as alternative media and other satellite phones have also been installed for providing uninterrupted telecom services during the Yatra period,” Agarwal said.
In reply to a question, the GM BSNL said that it can’t check the “misuse” of the internet services in militancy infested areas of the valley particularly north Kashmir, which borders Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and witnesses infiltration of militants quite often.
“We can’t stop people from stopping our services since we are service providers. Our job is to provide service. We can’t check its use or misuse,” he said. However, he was quick to add: “We will say our people are using it.” He, said that the BSNL is providing services to only those far-flung areas where Home Ministry has directed to do so.
On the directions of Government of India, Agarwal said, the BSNL is working on a project for providing telecom services to Central Armed Police Force deployed in far-flung areas.
Follow our WhatsApp channel