Agartala, Feb 19 (IANS) The central government has renewed pre-paid mobile licences of cell phone service providers for one more year in the militancy hit northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir, officials said here Thursday.
“The current licence for all the service providers for pre-paid cell phones was to expire Feb 22. There were apprehension that the authorisation might not be renewed by the centre after terrorists were found to be using such pre-paid connections,” said V. Munindranath, a senior official of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Of the 10 million cell phone users in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, more than 60 percent are pre-paid users.

“The existing post-paid mobile phone users can switch over to the pre-paid service if they so desire,” the BSNL official said.

“BSNL would provide more facilities, including internet, Short Messaging Service (SMS) in the Wireless in Local Loop (WIL) phone services across the northeastern region,” Munindranath told journalists.

He said that to make the broad band telephone and internet services more popular, subsidy would be given to rural customers.

The BSNL would also soon introduce new 3G services in the northeast India to make the telecommunication services more people friendly and useful.