Cross-border phone calls will soon be possible using mobile phones says TRNC Chamber of Commerce head Fikri Toros, ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
Speaking to ‘Al Jazeera’ Toros said that barriers to direct phone calls between north and south Cyprus would soon be a thing of the past.
Infrastructure work should be completed this month, the respective chambers of commerce from both communities having for some time, been working towards making direct calls on mobile phones possible.
Toros also revealed that the project had been given the go-ahead by the leaders of both communities.
Currently users in the south have to dial an international code through Turkey in order to make phone calls to the north, while Turkish Cypriot mobile phone users have to dial an international code, which again goes through Turkey, to call the south.
Toros said that before the last round of peace talks he and the head of the South Cyprus Chamber of Commerce discussed the issue in Malta in 2013.
“During that time we couldn’t make any progress. However, we did not give up and pushed for it.”
According to Toros, most of the challenges are technical ones, such as the tariffs and the location of the mobile stations.
Under the new arrangement mobile phones with Turkish GSM numbers can be also used in the south, something that was not possible before. In addition, many Greek Cypriot users had problems with reception in most areas of the north.
