NEW DELHI, Feb 20 – At least 23 towns and cities in Assam besides other towns in the North Eastern Region (NER) are planned to be brought under the mobile telephone network (Cellular Mobile Telephone Service) from August, this was disclosed by Minister of State for Communication, Sumitra Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha today.
With this the monopoly enjoyed by the Reliance Telecom (P) Limited is also expected to end as other players including the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Hexacom India Limited have been granted licenses to operate in the Region. While Reliance Telecom is operating in Guwahati and Shillong, the two new licenses are yet to start operation in the Region. Mahajan, meanwhile, disclosed that the Government of India’s decision to allow extension and fresh start of Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) was conveyed to the operators on August 21 last year.
The BSNL has decided to rollout its CMTS services according to its plan under phase-I and phase-II together in the North-east and Assam Telecom Circle Service areas from August to cover various cities and towns. The BSNL, it may be mentioned here has already launched its cellular services all over the country barring the troubled North-east and Jammu and Kashmir incurring and estimated expenditure of Rs 2500 crore. In Assam, the Minister revealed 23 cities and towns are planned to be covered with a total line capacity of 42,550. The entire North-east is estimated to have a line capacity of 54,200, Mahajan added.
It may be recalled here that the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs, because of the perceived fears of the insurgents misusing the cellular phone, banned cellular phone services in the North-east and J&K. But under pressure of the Telecom Ministry as well as the Parliamentary Standing Committee attached to the Ministry, the Cabinet Committee on Security reviewed the policy. The cellular phone operations in the Region was thrown open but the intelligence agencies in addition to the army are likely to keep a close watch and may resort to eves dropping.