Chennai: The "telephone density" in India would be increased to 15 per cent from the existing 5.5 per cent by the year 2010, the last year of the 10th Five Year Plan period, Union Minister of State for Communications S Thirunavukkarasar said on March 30.

"The landline connections in the country, which was around two crore in 1998, had doubled in the past five years of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The cellular phone connections in the country had also gone up from three lakh connections in 1998 to 1.30 crore connections now, which also included the private sector," he said launching the "CellOne", cellular service in Chennai city by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Thirunavukkarasar said only five months ago, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee launched BSNL's cellular service in the country and in the past five months, 22 lakh BSNL cell phone connections had been given in the country, thanks to the technology now available with the BSNL workforce.

To mark the launch, the minister made the first call to his Cabinet colleague A K Moorthy, seated next to him.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman and managing director of BSNL Prithipal Singh said BSNL's cell phone service would be launched in Jammu and Kashmir on April 14 and in the North East region by August 15.

PTI