Jammu, July 25: Bharatiya Sanchar Negam Limited (BSNL) finally launched the much awaited limited edition Third Generation (3-G) mobile service in Jammu city, while the services is likely to be started in Srinagar city from next week.
The service was formally launched from Sunday after a month long trial, official sources said adding that the service has been, however, launched without ‘video calling’ facility, which has been put on hold by the union home ministry in view of the security concerns.
 “We need another week to launch the service in Srinagar city as the instrument installation work is still in progress,” official sources told Greater Kashmir.
If the sources are to believed, the voice calling (without video) is also been launched in a phased manner as the security agencies fear its misuse in remote areas of the state. The services will be launched only in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar in the first phase and rest of the areas will be covered at the later stage, Managing Director of the BSNL RK Koul said.
Notably, BSNL authorities had to wait for a long time before the service was permitted to be launched in the state by the central government, which, according to the sources, consulted all the security and intelligence agencies over the security matter before grating permission.
The sources disclosed that the home ministry wants BSNL to install special instrument to keep a check on the use of video calling for security reasons. The instrument, they said, was not available as of now so the service has been put on hold.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
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