Telegram service in country to close at 9 pm today
New Delhi, July 14: The 160-year old telegram service in the country will operate for the last time on Sunday, July 14. "Sunday is the last day for telegram services. The service will start at 8 am and close by 9 pm," BSNL CMD R K Upadhyay told PTI.
"The service will not be available from Monday." State-run telecom firm BSNL has decided to discontinue telegrams following a huge shortfall in revenue.
The
service
generated
about
Rs
75
lakh
annually,
compared
with
the
cost
of
over
Rs
100
crore
to
run
and
manage
it.
The
use
of
telegrams
has
declined
with
the
spread
of
mobile
phones
and
the
Internet
in
the
country.
The first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Kolkata and Diamond Harbour in 1850 and it was opened for use by the British East India Company the following year.
In 1854, the service was made available to the public. There are about 75 telegram centres in the country, with less than 1,000 employees to manage them. BSNL will absorb these employees and deploy them to manage mobile services, landline telephony and broadband services.
Faced with declining revenue, the government had revised telegram charges in May 2011, after a gap of 60 years. Charges for inland telegram services were hiked to Rs 27 per 50 words.
PTI