Telecom PSUs dial up wrong PCO numbers

Over 269,000 booths of MTNL, BSNL shut in 2 years.

Increasing competition from private players seems to have dealt a blow to the public call office (PCO) business of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) as over 269,000 PCOs of the two state-owned companies have shut shop in the last 24 months.

"It is not that the PCO business has gone bust -- new booths continue to mushroom all over the country. However, our growth in the PCO sector has slowed down on account of various factors," admitted a senior BSNL executive.

At present, BSNL and MTNL have a little over 2.1 million PCOs in the country, while private operators have set up close to 400,000 PCOs over the last two years.

The closure of PCOs in the southern states and Maharashtra, including those of Mumbai MTNL, is causing concern.

For instance, Kerala has witnessed a 96 per cent decrease in the number of BSNL PCOs and had just 310 operational booths as of February, 2005, a drastic fall from about 9,000 booths in January 2002.

About 37,000 PCOs each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have been shut down over the last two years, while in Delhi, a fifth of MTNL's PCOs have fallen to the increased competition, with 20,579 booths surrendering their connections.

BSNL executives share the view that the closures, especially in the southern states, are because of "the increasing availability of its mobile services".

"Competition from private players is more of an urban phenomenon. In other areas, factors such as the availability of our mobile service, decline in collections, closures owing to non-payment and franchisees shifting to other cities or moving to another business are the major reasons for PCO surrenders," said a BSNL executive.

"So far, we had not undertaken any market intervention to help booth owners. The recent move to reduce tariffs for calls made from PCOs, offer lower pulse rates, and increase the commission to booth owners, would give the much-needed boost to this sector," he said.

"Steps are on to maintain focus on this sector -- repair of faulty PCOs are being given priority, daily testing of PCO lines are being undertaken, and physical inspections are being carried out by our officers. The process has now become faster as fault bookings have been centralised at short-distance charging centres," he added.