Date:04/11/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/04/stories/2009110453900300.htm

Other States - Orissa

Phone use yet to pick up in remote areas

Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR: Owing to the ignorance of the people living in extreme remote pockets, the revenue generated from the Digital Satellite Public Telephones (DSPT) is still low for the BSNL in Berhampur telecom district.

Till August, the income from the DSPT connections was Rs. 4 lakhs in this telecom district. There are 135 DSPT connections in the telecom district. All of them are located in the remote areas of Gajapati district. It may be noted that the first DSPT connection of Orissa has come up at Balipanka village of Gajapati district. Speaking to newsmen, the General Manager of the Telecom District (GMTD), B.K. Nayak, said usually due to ignorance the illiterates and tribals living in remote areas think the DSPT connection to be a free facility provided by the government. So, they feel reluctant to pay for the calls made from the DSPT. Added to it, the regular use of telephone is yet to speed up in these underdeveloped far-off villages. Now mostly these telephones are being used in the time of emergencies.

The BSNL authorities are hopeful of increase in the revenue from the DSPT once the telephone use picked up and people started to realise that DSPT facility had been provided in their village only because traditional mean of telecommunication through cables was not viable for their village. At present the charges for the calls made from DSPT are subsidised. Mr. Nayak said they installed DSPT in several remote villages which were yet to have proper road communications. So, it was obvious that people of these areas would be ignorant about the payment structure of these special telephone connections.