DTS to slash STD tariffs by May 2000: Saran

BANGALORE: Department of Telecom Services (DTS) will slash STD tariffs and strengthen the optical fibre backbone for long distance telephony to offer affordable and better services to the consumer, a senior official has said.

''STD calls will cost much lesser from May next year after long distance telephony is privatised," DTS secretary Pradhan S. Saran said at the inauguration of Convergence India '99 seminar. He also said that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was already working on reducing the long-distance tariffs. DoT has also decided to lay down better quality and longer optical fibre backbone. ''Our target is to put in place another one lakh root km of optical fibre network by 2000-01, up from 60,000 root km this year in order to access even the remotest corners of India," Mr Saran added.

Commenting on the government's initiatives in telephony, Mr Saran said that rural connectivity was very much on agenda and the wireless in local loop (WLL) technology would be used in those villages where telephones have not reached yet. ''We will use WLL to connect 400 such remote villages by the end of the current fiscal," he said. On the issue of telephone-on-demand, he said all state capitals would have the facility by March next year.