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| Sunday, 29 February 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Subsidy scheme for payphone operators by Hiran H. Senewiratne The government has introduced a subsidy scheme for payphone operators to encourage them to install booths in rural areas. "We are giving a subsidy for any operator, who intends to penetrate into rural areas", said a spokesman for the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC). "The main objective of this programme is to increase the country's tele-density and to give access for rural people to use phones," he said. The same spokesman said that in certain rural areas, the people had to walk miles to make telephone calls. With a view to averting that inconvenience, the government was planning to popularise payphones in those areas and the TRC would grant a subsidy of Rs. 75,000 for every single booth to be installed by the company, said the spokesman. He said that Worldcall Ltd. had signed an agreement with the TRC for this purpose and Tritel Services was waiting to sign the pact and to get into the band wagon. According to the TRC spokesman, at least 35 payphones have to be installed in every single district by any payphone operator to qualify for this subsidy scheme. Tritel Services Chief Executive Officer, Robert J. Schuster, said that since the company was dominating the payphone industry in the country, they hoped to sign the agreement shortly. "Currently, Tritel has more than 3000 payphones covering most of the districts in the country. With the implementation of the subsidy scheme, the company would be able to minimise its additional cost to a great extent, which would enable them to pass on the benefit to the consumer. However, the company would install nearly 1600 payphones throughout the country before the end of this year, Schuster added. "Tritel is the market leader in Sri Lanka with the ability to offer a range of unique telephone solutions", he said. Tritel began providing payphone telecommunication solutions throughout Sri Lanka in 1997 and it has the largest payphone network covering 80 per cent of the major towns and suburbs in the country with a customer based exceeding a million users per month. In addition to being a national payphone operator, Tritel intends to expand into other telecommunication services including pre-paid telephone services, international voice and data service, international voice short messaging services. Worldcall Country Manager, M. Mustapha, said that the company would start its operations in rural areas from next month in a big way. He said that the company had a plan to install at least 35 pay phones in every district to qualify for the subsidy scheme. Mustapha said that this industry had a great potential, especially in rural areas. Earlier, World call telephone booths had been mainly installed in local post offices and it was now in the process of entering the market in a big way after signing the agrement with the TRC. |
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