UNFICYP is looking at doubling the capacity of its bicommunal telephone exchange to cope with the soaring demand for calls across the Green Line.
Force spokesman Charles Gaulkin told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the heavy use of existing lines was forcing the UN to consider expanding the service, suggesting it would probably be necessary to double capacity.
Gaulkin added the UN was also considering the introduction of fax service, which does not currently exist.
No date has been set to begin work on any upgrading of the telephone exchange, and it will take at least several months before all preparations are complete and funds available, Gaulkin told the Mail.
Records kept by Unficyp show that the use of bicommunal phone lines is increasing rapidly.
The number of calls per month rose sharply during the course of 1999, from 17,607 in January to a peak of 44,652 in November. Averaged out for the year, the automated service handled just under 1,000 calls per day.
Unficyp records place the total number of calls made over the north-south divide last year at 354,647 – 228,663 of which were from south to north and 125,984 from north to south.
The service was inaugurated on May 26, 1998 after Unficyp received $165,000 in United States funds through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Prior to the introduction of the new service, an operator-assisted system averaged only about 100,000 connections per year.
The project was the brainchild of US envoy Richard Holbrooke, who promoted it through a bicommunal business initiative.
Dinos Lordos, who worked with Holbrooke on the project, said yesterday the total cost for doubling existing lines was not likely to exceed $100,000. Lordos sees the project as a way of testing the good will that exists in each community towards solving the Cyprus problem.
Callers in the free areas must dial 0139 to obtain a dial tone to the north, while those in the occupied areas call 0123. Calls from south to north are charged at local rates, while the Turkish Cypriot side charges international rates to the south.
The switching equipment is located at Unficyp Headquarters in Nicosia where the lines are automatically connected. The equipment can handle 20 simultaneous connections.
