After a month- long dillydallying and tough postures the state owned teleco BSNL finally had to comply with the TRAI’s directive to reconnect to the private operators in Punjab bringing relief to millions of phone users.

The services have been restored following fresh directions issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to BSNL to restore the services by today. 

"The Points of Interconnect (providing connectivity between BSNL landline phones and mobile phones of private operators within Punjab have been restored, following directions from the head office," a BSNL official said here. 

Earlier last week, BSNL had ignored similar directions of TRAI, after which private mobile operators again approached the regulatory body. 

On September 29, BSNL's Punjab circle had disconnected the services to five mobile operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communication and Idea, on account of pending dues amounting to Rs 13 crore. 

Customers could not call up on one another's network in Punjab, Chandigarh and Panchkula in Haryana. 

BSNL landline subscribers could not make a call to mobile subscribers of private mobile operators and vice-versa. 

On October 3, BSNL restored services to RCom and Tata Teleservices as telecom tribunal TDSAT stayed BSNL from disconnecting services of the two private operators. 

BSNL, following hardships faced by those in distress, had restored services to emergency numbers like 100, 101, 102 and 108 in the Punjab circle. 

In Punjab, BSNL has about 11.91 lakh landline customers, while mobile operators Airtel, Vodafone and Idea had 67.09 lakh, 42.30 lakh, and 47.34 lakh subscribers respectively as on July 31.