Paswan hints at lower ISD rates, VSNL compensation

Incoming international calls constitute 86 per cent of the traffic while outgoing calls are only 14 per cent, Paswan said adding that this needed to be corrected.

Asked whether government would consider lowering the international call tariffs, Paswan said there was no other way to correct the imbalance and indicated that calls charges could be reduced to 0.9 dollars per minute from the existing tariff of 1.8 dollars.

For compensating VSNL, the Minister said, government would not shy away from making any financial compensation at the cost of providing affordable and quality services to its subscribers. He, however, refused to give any details in this regard saying "the matter was under department’s consideration."

Paswan also convened a meeting of senior officials of newly-created Department of Telecom Operations (DTO), MTNL, C-DOT and ITI on the subject of qualitative improvement in the services especially with regard to lowering of fault rate and other related problems.

Paswan said in the emerging competitive environment DTO should be ready to meet challenges of quality services to customers. A number of decisions had been taken in this regard. Telecom subscribers can now buy telephone instrument of their choice and the department would give Rs 500 rebate for the same, official sources said.

It was identified that "paper core cables" throughout the country, which was causing frequent faults, would be replaced with latest technology cables. The Minister directed the officials that Chief General Managers of all telecom circles should be delegated powers to replace these cables. They should set a three-year target and formulate a plan to replace one-third of these cables every year with appropriate technology like jelly filled cable, optical fibre cable or any other new technology cable.

Paswan also directed the officials for fixing an appropriate level of responsibility for identification, rectification and monitoring of telephone faults in every exchange, official sources added.

MTNL cellular services in November: Union Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said that cellular mobile services by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) would be launched in New Delhi and Mumbai by November this year.

Addressing a specially convened meeting of senior officials of Department of Telecom Operations (DTO), MTNL, C-DoT and ITI, Paswan said MTNL would start mobile service using GSM technology by November 2000. The state owned corporation earlier launched mobile phone services with limited mobility last year.

The cellular mobile services by DTO should begin its pilot project in Bihar and West Bengal by October this year while in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu by November 2000, Paswan said.

MTNL had earlier scheduled its cellular launch on October two, sources said adding that same had been rescheduled now for November. Paswan had convened the meeting to discuss ways of improving telecom services with regard to lowering of fault rates and other related problems.