Kerala - Kochi   

BSNL releases telephone directory for 2005

Staff Reporter

Brought out after four years, it has entries corrected up to April

KOCHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Ernakulam, released its directory for 2005 here on Monday. The 1,430-page directory of landlines was brought out after four years since its publication became entangled in legal issues.

The previous directory was published in March 2000. Mayor C.M. Dinesh Mani released the directory. P.K. Shamsuddin, former judge, Kerala High Court, received the first copy.

The directory, published by GETIT Infomediary Ltd., is corrected up to April 2005. S.R. Pillai, Principal General Manager, BSNL, Ernakulam, who presided over the function, said the manner in which a telephone directory was provided in the printed format was likely to undergo a change in future, since the number of mobile-phone connections had exceeded that of landlines in the country.

Jacob Thomas, Deputy General Manager (Operations), welcomed the gathering. Mr. Shamsuddin, who was the arbitrator appointed by the High Court for resolving the legal dispute in bringing out the directory, spoke. K. Surendran, Area Manager (Value-added Services), BSNL, proposed a vote of thanks.

There are 62 million mobile-phone connections against 46 million fixed telephones under BSNL. He said only BSNL was providing directory information in the printed format. No private telecom service provider had brought out a directory. There had been no demand for it too, he added.

Entries

The entries in the directory are divided into two groups: one of the Ernakulam Multi Exchange area and the other outside that. There are 80 distribution points at the office of the Sub-divisional Engineer (External) from which directories can be collected from Tuesday.

Subscribers need to furnish the latest telephone bill received from BSNL to get the directory.

There are 5,28,739 basic telephones in Ernakulam Secondary Switching Area (SSA). The number of applicants on the waiting list is 42,639. BSNL is planning to provide 80,000 new telephone connections this year, of which 65,000 are planned to be released using Wireless-in-Local-Loop technology and 15,000 on cable network.

WLL towers at 43 locations are already in advanced stages of completion.

It will take the total number of WLL stations to 67. The number of cellular post-paid connections is 35,837 and prepaid connections 1,17,061. BSNL is planning to expand the mobile-phone coverage across the SSA by adding 215 more cellular towers to the existing 152.

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