All villages to have public phones by next year: Mahajan

The government on Thursday promised to provide all villages with public telephones by next year by adopting new technologies.

Replying to a question by M M Agarawal of Congress during Question Hour, Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan said over 500,000 villages in the country were having village telephone facilities and another 290,000 needed to be provided with the facilities.

Of these, 50,000 villages were earmarked for the private sector and they had obviously not gone to these non-lucrative

areas.

He said the government had removed restrictions on wireless in local loop technology in Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern states.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had prepared a district-wise plan to reach the villages.

To a question on tele-density, the minister said it had gone up to 4.5 telephones for every 100 people. The figures are certainly better than Pakistan, but lagged behind Chinese figures, he said.

Source: UNI