New telephone exchange for Falluja

 

Kahled Talib

 

Azzaman, May 21, 2005

 

The Telecommunications Ministry is installing a new telephone exchange in Falluja.

 

The city’s telephone services were destroyed during the U.S.-led fighting in the city in November last year.

 

Damage to the city’s telecommunications center was overwhelming that the ministry had to reconstruct a new building instead.

 

“The campaign to restore telephone services to the city is proceeding according to plan despite mounting difficulties,” a statement by the ministry said.

 

It said engineers rehabilitating the city’s telecommunications “face technical hurdles as well problems related to security.”

 

The statement did not elaborate but despite the nearly one-month long fighting that has turned Falluja into a ghost city, residents say there has been a hike in insurgent activity recently.

 

Public services in the city, home to nearly 300,000 people, are scarce and non-existent in certain quarters.

 

The ministry statement did not say when the new telephone exchange will be in place.

 

However, it said 1,800 telephone lines were repaired recently through the installation of a small Korean-made exchange.