Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

BSNL to offer intercom facility for merchants

CHENNAI: A sizeable segment of Chennai-based merchants will be provided intercom calling facility among the fraternity through the Intelligent Network (IN) facility of BSNL Chennai Telephones.

The “IN Virtual Private Network” (VPN) offering will allow enlisted merchants to use a short code to contact each other free over a Centrex (centralised exchange) facility. The BSNL is providing the Centrex facility through a dedicated exchange set up at its Haddows Road complex.

The Centrex feature for merchants in the city is to be formally launched on Thursday.

At present, about 6,000 members of the Federation of Madras Merchants and Manufacturers Association will have their landlines enrolled on the IN VPN facility.

The merchants’ association is an assorted organisation with members ranging from electronics hardware and pharmaceutical wholesalers to sports good traders and gem, leather and granite dealers. Chennai Telephones had earlier launched a similar facility for city and suburban police, looping around 12,000 mobiles and 2,000 landlines to the Intelligent Network.

“The capability is scaleable and we could expand the IN circuit to about one lakh users,” a BSNL official told The Hindu.

Already, the association has promised to rope in 4,000 more members to the group.

In offering the normally chargeable service free, BSNL expects long-term returns through a churn from rival operators who offer a similar facility as well as generating a substantial number of calls outside the IN circuit among merchants.

The Centrex facility allows group users to retain the same eight-digit landline number. The billing process remains the same and the instrument will continue to serve as a regular fixed phone for making outcalls. The user has to hit the hash key to access IN and use a unique short code to reach other members of the group.

The other features being offered to the merchants’ association are call divert facility to another member of the group and a separate telephone directory for the members.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Stress on interface between State and NGOs
Contributions made to AIADMK fund
TTDC launches virtual tours on its website
Centre to have unified safety standards for food
Additional trains
Pleas on admissions to super-specialty courses dismissed
They weave magic and reap success
Chennai Corporation councillors declare assets
From child actor to celebrated performer
“Adopt disease preventive steps”
Students’ potential set to be tapped
Traffic changes in Egmore
BSNL to offer intercom facility for merchants
Entrance fee slashed for food festival
Special trains
Iron-and-steel market moves out
Bodies washed ashore
Three persons arrested for cheating
Found dead
Corporation to regulate private parking lots
Passport Office to be shifted
Modalities discussed for issue of UIN
Selling cakes, promoting a cause
New dam grave threat to State: Vaiko
Man arrested
Notice to be served on community hall lessees
Insurance schemes help many patients
Chennai Today

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu