Services of BSNL landlines and mobiles will be affected on Wednesday as more than 3.6 lakh workers are going on a nation-wide strike on July 11.

The strike, called by the Joint Forum of Associations and Unions of Executives and Non Executives of BSNL, is to protest against the Union government’s ‘apathy’ towards Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, Vittal Rao, convenor, said BSNL employees, including 30,000 of them in Karnataka, will boycott work from 6 am.

“We have three main demands - action against Centre’s support to private operators at the cost of BSNL, proposal to place order for only 2G GSM equipment, that is of low technology instead of 3G high technology equipment and abnormal and intentional procurement of 45.5 million GSM lines to favour private operators” said Mr Rao.

The treatment meted out to BSNL by Union Minister for Communication and IT, Mr A Raja has pushed BSNL from second to the third position, he said.

 “We will assemble at the chief general manger’s office today and submit a memorandum  to the governor. Thereby we request the support of the public. Employees union regret any inconvenience that may be caused to BSNL customers.”

Meanwhile, Deccan Herald received calls from readers complaining that services of BSNL were affected on Tuesday evening.