KOLLAM: Kollam Telecom General Manager S.M. Kalavathi has said the entire waiting list for telephones in Kollam district will be cleared by December. At a press conference here on Thursday, she said as of now there were 24,444 applications in the waiting list. During this year, till August, 15,289 new connections were provided.

There were eighty-one telephone exchanges in the district and together they account for 3,25,228 working connections. The Kollam district comprises three short distance charging areas of Kollam, Karunagapally and Punalur. There were 5180 STD booths and 655 local call booths in the district, she said.

Special care was being taken to improve BSNL's cellular mobile phone coverage in the district. For the purpose another twenty-one mobile towers will be soon commissioned.

Sites for seventy more towers were being planned. There were 117 such towers in the district. For the better performance of the BSNL mobile phones in Kollam city, an additional mobile tower was being set up within the Railway premises, Ms. Kalavathi said.

At present the BSNL had 32,572 post-paid and 99,519 pre-paid connections in the district. BSNL has 19,832 Sancharnet (internet) connections in the district. For collection of bills, there were 376 collection centres including post offices and banks. In addition to that there were sixteen on-line counters for collection of bills.

`Attractive offers'

She said attractive offers have been announced in connection with BSNL's sixth anniversary celebrations. These include 200 free SMS within the State for new mobile phone customers, reduction in ISD tariff to Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Baharin, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, increase in free talk value per month for post-paid connections and other special offers for Excel Ananth scheme customers.

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