KOHAT, Dec 21: The PTCL launched its wireless loop telephone service in Kohat on Tuesday. The service was inaugurated by divisional engineer Badruzzaman, who announced that initially 250 connections had been released , which would be gradually increased up to 2,000 soon.

Speaking on the occasion, he said two types of services had been provided to the public, one with a range of six kilometres and second with maximum of 20 kilometres. The service would include all facilities currently in use by the PTCL users and the call rates would also be the same. However, those who do not use the connection would be charged Rs7 per day.

For example, if a person uses the facility on 15 days in a month he would be charged Rs7 per day. The price of the six-kilometre range set with connection is Rs3,449 and that of 20 kilometres is Rs3,899. The latter also includes an antenna which the user would have to install in his home.

The PTCL divisional engineer said the wireless system had been imported from China. It is important to note here that the range of the wireless service is the same as of the various mobile phone companies, which cover only 30 per cent area of the district due to close proximity of tribal areas in the north and north west and largely scattered population in the east and south.