4.5 lakh new phone connections in 2000-01

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 25. The Kerala Telecom Circle will be giving 4.5 lakh new telephone connections during the current financial year, according to its Chief General Manager, Mr. S. Nagalingam.

At a press conference here today, he said the Circle now had 6.47 lakh applicants in the waiting list. The number of applicants is mounting in spite of the fact that 3.5 lakh connections were given last year.

As many as 37 new telephone exchanges are proposed to be opened this year.

The Circle's Principal General Manager (Operations), Mr. P. P. Ramachandran, claimed that the fault rate with the telecom network had come down substantially in recent months. Faults reported were being rectified much faster. The Circle was currently engaged in a phased programme for replacement of fault- prone instruments. It was expected to be completed within the next three years.

Internet service

Referring to the internet service being provided by the department, he said the Circle now had 10,660 customers for this service, in addition to eight leased-line subscribers.

Internet nodes now exist in eight district headquarters - Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Idukki. These are linked to the gateway in Chennai, and access at local call rates is available to all the customers.

A high capacity node is being installed in Ernakulam as part of the National Internet Backbone (NIB). Thiruvananthapuram will get a medium type node and the other district headquarters and the island of Kavaratti (in Lakshadweep) will get smaller types.The Kerala Circle will have as many as 50 nodes under the NIB.

Mr. Nagalingam said the Circle would have all its exchanges connected with optical fibre/digital microwave by March, 2001. Data transmission would be extremely reliable and smooth once this programme was completed. Of the total 924 exchanges in the Circle, 621 had already been provided with optical fibre media.

He said 193 new-technology-exchanges in the Circle had the capability to provide the Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), which facilitates voice, data and image transmission by means of the existing network. All the Secondary Switching Areas (SSAs) had ISDN connectivity. However, the demand for this service was poor in the region, the number of connections being just 114. There were 19 applicants in the waiting list for ISDN connections. They would be given the connections as soon as certain commercial formalities were over, he said.

Mr. Nagalingam said the Circle proposed to market the ISDN and Internet services with the help of outside agencies. Awareness about the advantages of ISDN was still low, he said.

He said the Circle would also be introducing SSA-wise direct dialing on a seven-digit numbering scheme during the year. District-wise direct dialing facility, without the need for access code, was now available throughout the Circle. All exchanges were also having STD facility.

He said this Circle, which served the whole of Kerala, the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and part of the Union Territory of Pondicherry (Mahe), had an impressive record of development activities in the field of telecommunications. In 1990, it became the first Circle in the country to have all the exchanges automatic. In 1992, Kerala became the first State to have public telephone facility in all the panchayats.

The State, with a population of over three crores, had a telephone density of 52.7 per thousand people, as against a national average of 26.6 connections per 1,000 people.

``We get around four lakh applications for telephone connections every year. Also, of the 6.47 lakh applicants in the current waiting list, a majority is from rural areas. In urban areas, we are able to provide connections much faster and clear the applications,'' he said.

WLL technology

Mr. Nagalingam said there was a limit to the quantum of work that could be executed physically by a Circle using the traditional methods of drawing physical lines. Largescale use of `Wireless in Local Loop' (WLL) Technology was the only viable alternative for the fast clearance of the waiting list.

He said a 500-line WLL system had been installed at Chevayur in Kozhikode recently. The system was now being tested for the efficiency of the technology. On successful field trial for six months, it would be expanded to about 5,000 lines. Another 1,000- line WLL system had been allotted for Thiruvananthapuram.

The Circle had requested the department to allot 2 lakh lines of WLL equipment for this year. The waiting list backlog would get cleared very fast then, he added.

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