News on Phone, a facility that made news headlines available on the phone from the Thiruvananthapuram station of All India Radio (AIR), has been discontinued.
The management committee of Prasar Bharati, the public service broadcaster, had last month approved discontinuation of the service from New Delhi and regional news units. News on Phone, first launched in 1998, became available in Thiruvananthapuram in 2006. All one had to do was call 125900 or 125800 to get news in Malayalam round the clock.
Issues such as poor response from callers in other places and failure to make an impact are learnt to be behind the Prasar Bharati decision, an AIR official said.
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In Thiruvananthapuram with updates every half an hour, an average 20,000 calls were received a month. The number went up during election time or other such important happenings, it is learnt.
Unlike in other units where 16 calls could be received simultaneously, the engineers at the Thiruvananthapuram station had developed a software which made it possible to get 60 calls at a time. The revenue from the calls was split between Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and AIR.
Visually challenged persons have come out in protest against the discontinuation of News on Phone. “The service was available at no extra cost. No additional posts had to be created as those giving news updates for the AIR FM channel managed this too,” the official said.
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The decision to wind up the project in the Thiruvananthapuram, despite receiving a relatively higher number of calls, is being seen as another instance of Prasar Bharati’s neglect of the city. While most State capitals have two to three FM channels of AIR, there is only one here. The quality and reach of the AIR main channel broadcast on medium wave is poor in the city owing to disruptions such as noise, mobile towers, and automobiles. Since FM channels have more clarity and better reception in vehicles and on mobiles, there is need for an additional FM channel to broadcast programmes of relevance to the public, officials said.
When an AIR tower collapsed in heavy rain last month, all programmes were telecast on FM channel for 8 to 10 days. The response from city residents was huge, they say. “All that is needed is a frequency allocation by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and a 1 kw transmitter to make available all the quality programmes on the main channel on FM. This does not entail any huge expenditure,” officials said.
Service discontinued nationwide citing poor response
City’s station could handle 60 calls at a time
Service was available at no extra cost