Srinagar: Postpaid mobile services on all networks were restored in the Kashmir Valley on Monday, 72 days after they were snapped following restrictions.
Some 40 lakh postpaid mobile phones have become operational from Monday noon.
Restrictions were imposed after the Centre on August 5 abrogated the state's special status and bifurcated it into Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, which will come into being on October 31.
Partial fixed line telephony was resumed in the Valley on August 17 and by September 4, nearly 50,000 landlines were declared operational.
In Jammu, the communication was restored within days of the blockade and mobile internet was started around mid-August. However, internet facility on cell phones was snapped again on August 18.
Rohit Kansal, J&K Principal Secretary (Planning Commission), on Saturday, said that all postpaid mobile services would be functional from today. "All postpaid mobile phones stand functional from Monday 12 noon in the remaining areas of Jammu and Kashmir," Kansal had then said.
The administration has been examining various options with regard to suspension of mobile phone services which have come in for severe criticism for causing hardships to about seven million residents of the valley.
At one point, it was planned to open only BSNL services, followed by allowing only incoming calls run by private telecom operators.
However, it was later decided to allow operationalisation of all postpaid phones run by all operators, and numbering around 40 lakh subscribers. This will leave out about 26 lakh prepaid mobile subscribers.
The services were supposed to resume on Saturday, but a last minute technical hitch led to postponing of the resumption of services.
(With PTI inputs)
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