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August 7, 1998

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Re. Dial: India Direct will let Indians abroad make calls payable in rupees back home.

A Staff Writer in Bombay

The Department of Telecommunications, the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited have jointly announced the introduction of their India Direct Service.

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It will assist Indians travelling abroad to make calls to India using the services of an Indian operator.

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DoT Member (Services) P S Saran explains that it is similar to USA Direct and other home-country direct services that are available to foreign travellers in India.

India Direct allows Indians travelling abroad to make international calls to India that are charged in rupees in India.

To use this service, a person in a foreign country calls a unique number and is connected automatically to an MTNL operator in Bombay.

The MTNL operator will then pass the call on to the desired number in India, having first checked that the called party is ready to bear the charges.

Amitabh Kumar, acting chairman and managing director, VSNL, has said that the service would be particularly helpful to Indian students overseas and Indians travelling on business or vacation.

Another important benefit, Kumar points out, is that since the caller is dialling from a public pay phone or a private phone in the foreign country, he or she would only be using enough foreign currency for a local call.

In fact in some countries the special India direct number is toll free.

At present India Direct services are available from 16 countries:

Country

Access Number

Australia

1800551191

Bahrain

800991

Belgium

080070091

Israel

18009494910

Japan (KDD)

00539911

Japan (IDC)

006655091

Japan (JTC-ITC)

004411911

Malaysia

8000091

Singapore

8000910941

South Africa

0800990091

Taiwan

0080910091

UK (BT)

0800890091

UK (C&W)

0500890091

USA

18889100700

Denmark

80010091

Finland

0800110910

Germany

0130869100

Portugal

0800800910

UAE

8001191

More countries will be getting on-stream shortly. The called party has to pay depending on the duration of the call at operator-assisted international outgoing call rates.

The minimum charge is a 3-minute call plus a call surcharge of one minute irrespective of whether the call is 3 minutes or less.

For every additional minute or part thereof, a full minute will be charged.

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