BIJAPUR: Come Thursday next and you may not find any queue in front of telephone bill counters at the telecom office building here, thanks to installation of the anytime payment machine.

If everything goes according to the plan of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), installation of the ATP machine will be over by Wednesday and the service will be made available from the following day.

Procedure

The subscriber is required to feed his/her telephone number with the help of number keys. Details of the telephone number will then appear on the screen. It is almost like an ATM machine, the only difference being that the subscriber has to place currency notes in the receipt chamber of the machine. The amount should be the nearest round figure of the bill amount that is a multiple of ten.

The excess or less payment will be adjusted in the next bill. For instance, if the bill is Rs. 525 the subscriber can either pay Rs. 520 or Rs. 530 and the difference will be adjusted in the next bill.

The payment should be made in currency notes and minimum denomination that can be used is Rs. 10. After few seconds the receipt for payment comes out.

The machine will be manned by trained staff to help customers. Ravichandran, General Manager of Bijapur Telecom

District that comprises the Revenue districts of Bijapur and Bagalkot, told The Hindu that the ATP machine had already arrived and the installation process was under way. Once installed, it would work round the clock. Most of the towns already had online bill receipt counters. The CDMA technology-based wireless local loop (WLL) service was available in most of the major centres in the telecom district.

In addition to this, the service would be extended to centres such as Huvinahipparagi, Krishna Nagar, Guledgudda, Hallur, Tikota, Bilagi Kalkeri, Rabkavi, Talikot, Lokapur, Almel, Tamba, Telagi and Moratagi, he said.

To strengthen the mobile phone network, it had been planned to set up an additional 75 mobile (signal) towers in a span of one year.

Once the task was accomplished, almost the entire geographical area of the telecom district would come under BSNL mobile network, Mr. Mr. Ravichandran said.

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