The Hindu Business Line : BSNL offers multilingual SMS in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram May 17 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced the launch of multilingual short message services for its mobile phone customers in Kerala.

Announcing this at a press conference in the city on Thursday, Mr S.R. Pillai, Chief General Manager, Kerala Telecom Circle, BSNL said the new service would be offered in association with Geneva Software Technologies Ltd. The multilingual short message service (SMS) allows mobile phone users to send text messages in Malayalam and nine other Indian languages. The service is available on all mobile phones that support Java MIDP2.0 technology, he added.

To send text messages in Malayalam, BSNL customers will have to download the Geneva Messaging Service software onto their mobile phones. More information on this service can be obtained from the BSNL customer care number 91-94000-24365, he added.

Meanwhile, the company announced a range of promotional offers for its pre-paid and post-paid mobile phone customers. Theoffers for pre-paid customers will be valid till June 15, while the offers for post-paid customers will end on June 12, Mr Pillai said. The company will soon launch somemore promotional schemes for post-paid users, he added.

BSNL currently has 19.58 lakh mobile phone connections in Kerala.

It plans a significant expansion of its mobile phone capacity in Kerala and will add around 30 lakh connections over the next three years, he said. Over the next year alone, it plans to add capacity for 16 lakh new mobile phone connections and set up 1,000 new transmission towers for its mobile phone service, Mr Pillai added.

For fixed lines, the company plans to provide a `phone on demand' by next year, he said. It currently has around 40.31 lakh fixed-line telephone connections in Kerala and intends to give 2.6 lakh new connections over the next year. Most of these new connections will be provided using WLL technology, he added.

BSNL also plans to expand its broadband Internet service over the next year and will add capacity for 1.1 lakh connections, Mr Pillai said. Also on the cards is an online customer care portal, on the Kerala Telecom Web site, to deal with customer complaints.

Commenting on the Kerala Telecom Circle's revenues, he said it had earned Rs 2,788.58 crore in the last fiscal. The target for this financial year is Rs 3,050 crore, he added.

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