5 days ago
From The Hindu, August 5, 1975: Direct dialling facility to benefit rural areas
New Delhi, Aug. 4: The Posts and Telegraphs Department is working on a rural dialling plan to benefit subscribers in small towns and villages. The plan is based on the traffic pattern obtaining in the rural areas. It will enable the subscribers in a district to have automatic dialling of calls between the towns and with the district headquarters.
Sixty per cent of the calls in the rural areas have been found to be within a revenue district. Subscribers also put through more calls to the district headquarters rather than among themselves. Most of the calls are within a range of 50 kms. The rural dialling plan will provide quick communication in an economic way. Calls from places outside the district will be initially on a manual basis, but will become automatic in course of time.
Several advantages are claimed for the plan from the pattern of traffic. The cost of handling a short distance trunk call is Rs. 3 on average, while the revenue earned remains around one rupee only. Hence it is more advantageous to provide STD service in a revenue district. Already exchanges of 100 or 50 lines are automatic whereas the trunk service is manual. Under the proposed scheme, there will be more customer satisfaction as 60 per cent to 70 per cent can dial themselves. The loss to the Department will also be reduced. The Telecommunication Research Centre (TRC) is fully equipped to meet the demand. It has already evolved a new technique in telephone exchanges or switching centres which will bring down the cost of the network.
