New Delhi: Bharti Telenet on April 3 launched fixed line telecom services in Tamil Nadu under the brand name TouchTel.

The services were inaugurated by the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who made the first call from Chennai to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Vajpayee said telecom was one sector of the economy where the benefits of reforms were most visible. "These are the direct result of our progressive National Telecom Policy 1999," Vajpayee added.

He pointed out that the number of fixed phones, mobile phones and Internet subscribers had increased dramatically while tariffs for the consumers had fallen substantially, a release from Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said.

With the commencement of this service, various advanced telecom services such as voice, Internet on dial-up, Internet on ISDN would be made available in Tamil Nadu, the release added.

PTI