J&K: Postpaid mobile connections restored, movement restrictions to be lifted

Postpaid mobile services on all networks were restored in the Kashmir valley, 72 days after they were snapped following restrictions, PTI reported. The Centre had earlier stated that all movement restrictions will be completely lifted from today.

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. Restrictions were imposed 70 days ago after the Centre abrogated Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

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. 

The mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir were shut down on August 5 after the Centre announced in New Delhi the abrogation of the special status guaranteed to the state under Article 370 of the Constitution. Partial fixed line telephony resumed in the valley on August 17; by September 4, all landlines, numbering nearly 50,000, were declared operational.

In Jammu, the communication system was restored within days of the blockade and even mobile Internet was started around mid-August. However, after its misuse, the Internet facility on cellular phones was snapped on August 18.