NEW DELHI: The Government on Saturday simplified dialling and routing of calls in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Subscribers no longer have to dial "0" for calls to and from Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai to the remaining parts of the States.

Also, the artificial divide of two telecom circles will no longer separate customers in Uttar Pradesh.

As the STD system for landlines within a State has already been done away with, this announcement will cover calls made from a landline to a mobile phone, from a mobile to a landline and from one mobile to another within that State.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran said subscribers in the four States had been "wronged" ever since the telecom revolution began a decade ago. The new move would put them on a par with those in other parts of the country.

Licences for mobile services were first granted in the metros of Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai (along with Delhi). Subsequently, the licences were granted in telecom circles.

While Delhi was a city-state and faced no problem, there were separate mobile service licences for Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai and the remaining parts of these States.

Uttar Pradesh, on the other hand, was divided into two telecom circles — east and west.

This meant that for calls between two service areas in the same State, one had to prefix "0" to the mobile number and such calls were treated as STD calls.

Mr. Maran said the Government decided to remove this difference in the "public interest." Inter-service area connectivity between access providers in the four States was permitted.

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