Diwali gift for soldiers: No monthly fee for satellite phone calls

New Delhi: The government has decided that from the day of Diwali (October 19) it will charge no monthly fee for the DSPT service (satellite phone) used by the soldiers in India.

"From Diwali day (October 19), no monthly fee will be taken for using DSPT service, that is, the current monthly fee of Rs 500 will be `zero` from Thursday. And also, the present telephone charges of Rs 5 per minute is being reduced to Re 1 per minute," Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said here on Wednesday.

The soldiers and officers at present are required to pay a monthly fee of Rs 500 and call charges of Rs 5 per minute.

The soldiers use only DSPT service provided by BSNL because there is no other means of communication available in those areas.