Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

BSNL ready to meet demand for SIM cards

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE MARCH 5. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., which was facing a severe shortage of SIM cards for its post-paid cellular service, CellOne, is now ready to meet the demands of customers.

This was disclosed to presspersons by the General Manager (Mobile Services), Karnataka Telecom Circle, M.C. Kalkura, here today.

He said BSNL (Karnataka Circle) had received 55,000 SIM cards during the past week and they were being distributed to customers all over the State.

He said BSNL had placed orders for four lakh SIM cards (both prepaid and post-paid) of which 1.6 lakh cards had already been issued during the past three months.

Mr. Kalkura expressed confidence that BSNL would get the remaining SIM cards by March-end.

Of the 1.6 lakh SIM cards distributed, 75,000 are for CellOne and the rest for Excel (pre-paid), he added.

Excel, which was not in much demand so far, had now become popular after incoming calls were made free, he said.

Responding to a question, Mr. Kalkura said BSNL would install more Base Transmitting Stations (BTS) in Bangalore shortly to extend coverage of its cellular service.

He said new stations would be set up at places where the signals were weak.

The BSNL had introduced several new services for its CellOne users like Sunday Saver, Night Saver, and Friends and Family Talk Offer where airtime charges would not be levied. While Sunday Saver was charged at Rs. 50 per month, Night Saver (between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.) was charged at Rs. 125, and Friends and Family Talk Rs. 75 for a maximum three numbers, Mr. Kalkura said.

CellOne subscribers could now pay their bills through 59 branches of Karnataka Bank in the State, of which 36 were in Bangalore. This was in addition to the existing 11 departmental bill collection centres, he stated.

The Principal General Manager, Bangalore Telecom District, B.R.Baliga, said that BSNL had introduced a customer-friendly tariff for Direct Internet Access System for landline users.

The customer could browse the Internet 24 hours without losing incoming calls on his telephone under the new system, he said.

The facility was being introduced in Ulsoor, Indiranagar, Koramangala, City, and Central exchanges and it was likely to be extended to other exchanges, Mr. Baliga stated.

Mr. Baliga said telephone bills could now be paid through ING-Vysya Bank on www.ingvysyabank.com.

He said a customers' service centre had been opened at 325, 8th main, Basaveshwaranagar 3rd Stage, 4th Block. Telephone bill payment, issue of duplicate bills, issue of application forms for new connections and shift, sale of India Telephone Cards, and any other telecom-related information were available at the centre.

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