Srinagar
The government will restore short messaging services (SMS) on post-paid mobile phones in the Kashmir valley from midnight, government spokesman Rohit Kansal said at Jammu.
While addressing a press conference in Jammu, Rohit said broadband internet services in all government-run hospitals and schools were also being restored from 1 January.
On August 5, the government had suspended mobile and landline phone services in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions before moving to scrap Article 370 and splitting J&K into two union territories.
Rohit Kansal said the process had started on December 10 when SMS services were enabled on mobile phones to facilitate students, scholarship applicants, traders and others. They still could not send messages but could receive one-time passwords from machine-based connections such as banks.
“It has now been decided to fully restore the service throughout Kashmir from midnight of December 31,” Kansal said.
When post-paid mobile phones were restored on October 14, the SMS facility too was activated for a few hours. The administration, however, suspended SMS services within a few hours.
Meanwhile, mobile internet facilities were restored in Kargil on Friday, however, it remained suspended in Jammu and Kashmir since August 5.
