As many as 17.9 lakh (1.79 million) subscribers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and 203,000 customers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd surrendered landline telephones between April to October this year, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
From January 15, callers will have to dial numbers with prefix '0' for making calls from landline to mobile phone. Announcing the decision, the communications ministry said the move would free up sufficient numbering resources for future use, and nearly 2,539 million numbering series are expected to be generated as a result. There will be no change with respect to dialling numbers for fixed-to fixed, mobile-to-fixed, and mobile-to-mobile calls.
Users, however, can still make free Skype-to-Skype calls worldwide and international calls to mobiles and landlines.
The minister said the reasons for withdrawal of landline connections includes preference for mobile phones, move to private operator, disconnections due to non-payment of dues and surrendering of second telephone taken for get internet connection due to availability of broadband. The total number of landlines in the country as on March 2008 is 39 million, which was 4 crore in March 2007. At present, BSNL has 31 million landline users while MTNL has 3.68 million users.
Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that free broadband service in India could soon become a reality. He also said that zero-rental landline phones too might soon see the light of day.
Apart from that, as part of efforts to provide assurance to 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel and relieve their stress, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has stepped in to provide them with a landline through which they can talk to their families.
Throughout its 155 minutes, every scene is doused in blaring background music and melodrama. Disappointment alone won't do, it must feel like a full blown catastrophe, observes Sukanya Verma.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Numbers could be classified further into (140) marketing and (160 or 161) for service calls to easily identify the purpose of the call in the future.
An unidentified man made a threatening call on the landline number of Union minister Nitin Gadkari's official residence on Motilal Nehru road in New Delhi, the police said on Tuesday.
The pulse duration for local calls has been reduced to 2 minutes instead of the prevailing 3 minutes. The new tariff and pulse rate would be applicable from April 1, 2003.
When it comes to electric cars, the electric dream is turning out to be a six-letter word starting with f, ending with y, and having antas in between, notes Suveen Sinha.
'My mother, who was a simple woman, retorted, "Aur main Indira Gandhi bol rahi hoon".' 'We had a good laugh over that one, you and I.' On her second death anniversary, February 6, Subhash K Jha remembers his beloved Lata Didi.
The Mumbai Police held the accused from Patna on Wednesday for allegedly issuing the death threat to Pawar by making a call on the latter's landline phone, the official said.
The prime ingredient in Nannari Sherbat is sarsaparilla syrup, made from a tropical root or vine,
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The auger machine was facing repeated obstructions in the rubble in the past few days.
'During the nine years of BJP rule, not a single temple has been reconstructed.' 'They might have constructed the Ram temple as it is an emotional issue. But they are not much interested in issues like heritage.'
'When entering an industry like Bollywood, every actor hopes for a starmaker... My starmaker was Dev saab.'
The person called up the landline number of the Reliance Foundation Hospital, located at Girgaon in south Mumbai, first at 12.57 pm and then at 5.04 pm from an unknown number, a police official said.
In a bid to tap the rural market, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Wednesday said it would provide rent-free telephones to customers in villages.
'How do you stay so energised? So young?' 'Dev Anand flashed that familiar crooked grin and told me, "The mind never grows old. It urges you to surge ahead".'
Bantoo can now afford to laugh when he jogs his memory 32 summers back to April 20, 1991.
State-run MTNL on Tuesday launched voice SMS service for its fixed and mobile subscribers in New Delhi with technological support from the US-based value-added services provider Kirusa.
If you want to make your enemy look like a threat, at least make them formidable, sighs Sukanya Verma.
Gaurav Mohta, chief marketing officer, Home First Finance Company, answers home loan queries.
Everyone loves to hate their mobile service providers. Here, A. Ganesh Nadar shares his recent experience of having a cellphone connection go from bad to worse while travelling.
Mobile services and internet remained suspended for the 16th consecutive day, while landline telephone services in many areas also remained affected.
The proposal is aimed at arresting the decline in wireline services growth and spur availability of broadband internet access across the country. The move has been high on the agenda of Communications Minister A Raja for some time now.
The move will also facilitate extension of number portability to fixed lines.
Prabhat Kumar from Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir explains how his wife Ranjana supported him and kept his family together in difficult times.
'The entire idea behind the serial bomb blasts was to strike fear in the minds of Indians.' 'I don't think the blasts were targeted to derail the Indian economy; the idea behind the blasts was retribution.'
Officials said on Thursday that the force recently issued a circular also asking its troops and other staff to avoid sharing official orders on WhatsApp and desist from discussing and sharing operational matters over social media.
An official of the Jammu and Kashmir administration said, "Broadband high-speed internet connectivity was restored at 80 government hospitals, including health centres and offices linked to the department of health, across Kashmir." The internet services were to start at the government-run hospitals from midnight of December 31 as a New Year gift to the people in the Valley but it could not resume due to some technical issues, officials said.
Michael Dalvi, who played first class cricket for Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Bengal, once hit a century against a fiery Malcolm Marshall and the West Indies. At 77, he has a razor sharp memory, a ready wit and is a rare cricketing treasure.
Maninder Singh, the talented left-arm spinner, was taken to cleaners with utter disdain, but he never faced public wrath.
The governor also said no life has been lost in Jammu and Kashmir due to any violence in the last 10 days
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