Gujarat Telecom has announced a major cut in Internet charges from July 3 to July 31, which is available from 18 DoT nodes installed throughout the state. The registration rates for new telephone connections have been slashed by 30 to 50 per cent in Ahmedabad and certain other districts of the state.

This was announced at a press briefing by chief general manager of Gujarat Telecom P.K. Chanda on Friday. He said the registration charges will be wavied off for senior citizens, 65 and above. Mr Chanda said that by 2001 five lakh new connections would be added in Ahmedabad and by March 2001 their target is to zero down the connections waiting list.

Mr Chanda said 500 cyber cafes will be functional in rural areas, which will be provided at affordable rates with 25 per cent discount in call charges. About the unavailability of telecom directory in Ahmedabad city Mr Chanda said that the matter is in litigation and that CD-Rom phone directories are available for subscribers at the cost of Rs 25.

Any subscribers who book a new telephone connection from the period from July 3 to July 31 will be given a free directory also.

Subscribers can also purchase this directory from customer centres, which will be opened soon.

Mr Chanda said remaining 1,589 stations will be connected by optical fibre in the current year, which will facilitate availability of media for the IT governance programme of the state government.

Mr Chanda said that all stations will have STD connections and rates will also be reduced in a later stage while DoT plans to start its cellular services in Gujarat by year 2001. Speaking about the much awaited virtual calling cards Mr Chanda said that cards worth Rs 53 lakhs have already been sold out and presently the intelligence network is available in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat and Rajkot. Vadodara is to have the equipment soon.

Speaking on better customer care plans he said that the payment of bills through cheque is being accepted at 84 talukas and certain nationalised banks have begun accepting payment already. Apart from this Gujarat Telecom plans to replace all the rotary dial telephone instruments with push button ones in a phase manner by March 2001.

Republished from Asian Age