"The services will be launched this month in Patna. Initially, the phonecard will be in three categories, ranging from values of Rs 200 to Rs 500, valid for one year. The consumer will have the facility to call a toll free number to use the phonecard," general manager of Patna Telephones Chinmoy Mitra told The Financial Express.

Mitra said the phonecard has been launched in several metropolitan cities and only last week Calcutta joined the club. "We will be connecting this service with Calcutta initially and later we will switch over to Patna as soon as we set up our system here," Mitra said.

Clients can use the PABX system or the network without buying the PABX from DoT. This will be done in the second phase of modernisation that will take about 3-6 months from now, Mitra said. "This service will specially help bankers and otherservices with many offices in one town, as they would be able to drastically reduce local phone bills," Mitra said.

Regarding the expansion of internet services in Patna city where there are only 400 subscribers, Mitra said, "with new technology coming in and under the national network policy, we expect not less than 30,000 subscribers in coming months."