India's 160-year-old telegram service set to send its final message



The age of the global village, smart phones and high-speed internet has finally brought the demise of the country's 160-year-old telegram service.



The state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has scheduled July 15 as the final day for a service launched by the British in the 1850s and which in the days of snail mail was one of the quickest modes of communicating joy or sorrow between near and dear ones.



The service that had held its own in the days of the unreliable land-line telephone has ultimately bled to death.



Outdated: The state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has used the telegraph service largely for internal communication and other official messages for the past 10 years

BSNL has issued winding-up orders for the country's telegram service from July 15 as it was piling up an average loss of Rs 22 crore per year over the past few years.



"Since everyone is using mobile phones, emails and SMSes there are no customers for this age-old communication service,'' a senior BSNL official said.



The telegraph service is being used largely for BSNL's internal communication and other official communications for the past 10 years.

"For the past many years we have been using it for our internal communications or to communicate with other government departments.



"Telegram service now is of no relevance when you have much faster and better means of communications like mobile and other services. There are many strings involved in running a telegram service including a messenger to deliver the telegram to the receiver," a top BSNL official said.

The official explained that the telegram service was initially mooted to be closed in 2008 but the BSNL board decided to continue with it despite most of the telegraph offices across the country not getting even a single customer for the service during an entire financial year.



Historic: The telegraph service was launched by the British in the 1850s and in the days of snail mail was one of the quickest modes of communicating joy or sorrow between near and dear ones

It was only in April this year that the BSNL board decided to finally close the telegram service from July 15.



However, the board in the same month withdrew its overseas telegram services. Currently, BSNL has an operational loss of Rs 450 per telegram.



The charges for telegram services are Rs 25 for 30 words and thereafter Re 1 per word. For death related messages the charges are Rs 5 per 30 words.



