SOUTH
Twenty years ago, on September 17, 1996, legendary Malayalam writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai rang up AR Tandon, who was the Southern Naval Commandant then and exchanged pleasantries. As the man of letters spoke over a small mobile phone device, (though not as small as the stylish cell phones now in vogue) writer Kamala Das (Kamala Suraiyya) looked on, all in smiles!
The Jnanpith awardee was launching Escotel Mobile, the first mobile phone service in Kerala at a function held in a hotel in Kochi. The first mobile phone network was launched in the state a year after the service was officially launched on 31 June 1995 by Jyothi Basu, the Chief Minister of West Bengal then, dialling up Sukh Ram, the then Union Telecom Minister.
Escotel Mobile, which introduced mobile phone network in the state, was later acquired by Idea Cellular Ltd. The same year, BPL Mobile, another service provider, launched its operations in Kerala, followed by BSNL that commenced its mobile telephone services in 2002. That was an era when mobile customers paid for incoming calls too!
The state soon witnessed a revolution in mobile usage after mobile-to-mobile incoming calls were made free in 2003 and cheaper phones started flooding the market followed by smartphone revolution.
Today, Kerala is the only state in the country to achieve 100% mobile density with more and more service providers announcing amazing sops for customers and cutting edge technology introduced in the smartphone devices.
As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India statistics, Kerala is far ahead of other states when it comes to mobile phone penetration in 2015. Figures show 30 million connections for a population of 33 million. Out of 100 Keralites, more than 95.70 persons have phone connection today.