BSNL shuts down urban, rural exchanges for good

After closing the rural telephone exchanges serving less than 20 landline phone connections last year, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has now closed all urban and rural exchanges serving landline phones.

Confirming this, Tilak Raj, SDO (Telephones), Phagwara, said here on Wednesday that as per the instructions issued by the higher authorities, BSNL had closed all rural and urban exchanges for landline services since August 31.

He said BSNL was working on increasing the number of FTTH (fibre to the home) connections and was convincing people to convert their landline connections to FTTH.

He said in Phagwara, all 13 exchanges, including those at Phagwara City and Rampur Sunrra, Rihana-Jattan, Panchhat, Chiherru, Khurampur, Bhanoki, Sukhchain Nagar, Chahal Nagar, Hadiabad and Ranipur villages had been closed permanently.

The SDO said, at present, the number of landline connections in Phagwara was below 300, while around 4,000 subscribers had BSNL landline connections until a few years back. Interestingly, no lineman is available at the Phagwara exchange.

Reports of closure of exchanges have also been received from Goraya, Phillaur, Nurmahal and Nakodar. BSNL employees could be seen crying at the closure of the exchanges.