Private operators have for the first time overtaken the two PSUs, Mahanagar Telecom Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam in installation of new public call offices in the country.
From April to June, private operators such as Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices and Bharti Tele added more than 150,000 PCOs across the country, compared with a little over 21,000 for BSNL.
Additionally, according to the latest figures, BSNL's market share in this segment has fallen from 73 per cent in September 2004, to 64 per cent in June 2005.
Reliance Infocomm added 105,783 new PCOs, while Tata Teleservices added over 40,000 during the April-June quarter.
Despite the steep fall in long distance tariffs and the cellular boom, the number of phone booths that are being set up have continued their upward trend.
In total, 177,836 PCOs were set up in the country during in the quarter under review. The country currently has 3 million PCOs, as against 2.3 million at the end of 2004. Private operators, with 0.9 million PCOs, account for 26 per cent and MTNL with 0.3 million units has a 10 per cent market share.
According to data compiled by the department of telecommunications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, BSNL was the preferred operator for PCOs until March, 2005.
In the quarter ending March 2005, the PSUs had added 86,625 PCOs, as against 72,116 for Reliance Infocomm and 41,827 by Tata Teleservices.
Similarly, in the quarter ending December 2004, BSNL added 113,625 PCOs, while Reliance Infocomm set up 103,040 and Tata Teleservices 24,815. In a bid to arrest the slide in its PCO business, BSNL recently lowered tariffs for local calls made from its PCOs.
A call from a BSNL PCO to a fixed line now costs Rs 1.20 for 90-second compared with Rs 2 for a two-minute call earlier.
The PSU has also increased the commission for PCO booth owners up to 10 per cent.
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