The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Accessibility rings in telecom sector strides

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Accessibility rings in telecom sector strides

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI, JULY 23. The Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle is steadily climbing to the top in the mobile telephony sector. It has already witnessed a boom in the public call office (PCO) landline segment with the State including Chennai having 1,32,520 outlets.

This growth in the telecom sector has been attributed to improved accessibility, besides making available PCOs "on demand" as part of the scheme of the Union Ministry of Communications, which has made available the facility liberally to all aspirants above 18 years subject to their fulfilling the conditions of technical feasibility.

The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Shakeel Ahmad, says no target has been fixed for installation of PCOs under the Tenth Five-Year Plan. The number of outlets is linked to demand.

According to the Minister, 7,72,937 public telephone booths were provided during the Ninth Plan. The Union Territory of Pondicherry has 1,387 outlets.

Cost-effective

The PCO boom, according to Tamil Nadu Telecom sources, is mainly due to the cost-effective technology available for putting up the outlets and the growing awareness among people of keeping pace with the fast-changing trends and developments. "We have as many as 468 highway public telephone booths," a Telecom official said. The Telecom sector, along with Information Technology, is witnessing rapid developments.

The PCO users want the Communications department to come down heavily on those operators who "manipulate the pulse rates".

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