New schemes mark World Telecom Day

A range of new customer-friendly schemes besides organising seminars and promotional activities was launched by national telecom players to mark the World Telecom Day on Tuesday in the state.

While the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Hyderabad Telecom district introduced phone-on-phone service for the twin cities' customers from Monday, Reliance Infocomm announced that R world, the Reliance India Mobile's data application suite will post results of seven key examinations including Eamcet in the state over the next few weeks.

On the occasion, the All India Sanchar Seva PCO Society organised an exhibition at Jubilee Hall to encourage STD PCO owners to upgrade their facilities into internet-based multiple service delivery centres including utility bill payments.

Apart from this, PCONET chairman Anurga Gupta and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation (APIDC) chairman  Indrasena Reddy launched PCONET franchisee network.

Addressing a seminar organised by Sify, T H Chowdary, former IT advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government said that much more needs to be done in the telecom sector to expand connectivity.

"Even if we achieve the 250 million connections target over the next few years, it would still represent a penetration of just 22 per cent of the population. To create a truly equitable information society, each and every person should have an access to phone and internet," he said.

In yet another novel scheme to increase its customer base, BSNL Hyderabad Telecom district introduced a new service whereby a customers can book a new phone connection by dialling '1500'.

BSNL staff will come at the doorstep of the customer to collect the necessary documents and the phone will be provided immediately. It also advertised about various services like, wireless local loop (WLL), mobile communication, data connectivity and internet connectivity.

According to a BSNL press release, at the end of financial year 2004-05, its AP Circle had 3,341 electronic exchanges with a capacity of 42,7,943 lines and 32,63.908 working connections with 100 per cent STD coverage.

A  Reliance Infocomm release said that all results can be seen on R World's 'Exam Results' instantly by selecting 'Get Results', and then, the examination code. 

Those with RIM phones without R World facility can text message the respective exam code followed by the roll number to 1234 or 3926.