Those who are old enough might remember the days where you lived in a house that had no telephone. When you want to take a call you went to post office or a public place where telephone facilities are available.
In India, Sam Pitroda’s name went into history for the ubiquitous, yellow-signed Public Call Offices (PCO) that enabled cheap and easy domestic and international public telephones all over the country in 1980s.
Nearly two decades later the rapid expansion of mobile phones has finally brought that era to an end. Not surprisingly, public pay phones are rarely used these days. This photograph taken in Chennai few months back tells it all.
In UK, Telecoms giant BT has proposed removing 194 payphones from its network in the Highland region. It says an increase in the use of mobiles has led to calls made from phone boxes and payphone points falling by half in the last three years.
2 Comments
sean
hard to say.As far as I know,main operators like Reliance,BNSL have their big plans to expand their PCO network.
No doubt the number of Mobile users is increasing in a rapid way.But still hundreds and thousands poor people who can’t afford private mobile service.Those poor people also will not contribute to ARPU increase even if Mobile service operators draw them into their games.PCOs is suitable for such a group of people.
I’m doing Payphone business,and I have investigated India market for a long time,keeping in touch with operators.I think there are two markets in India,one demanding the most advanced technology while the other one demanding only the cheapest products providing basic features.
Nirosh Perera
Payphone market was partly dead due to the bad management of Payphone companies who came to Sri Lanka. Recently, I got to know about a new Payphone company name SimPhony and they use a SIM card with a number to access the network. They have SIM cards from Tigo and HUTCH and looks very impressive. I have seen lot of school children are using it. SimPhony phone looks very handy too.
Workshop: Digital Tools for Strengthening Public Discourse
Today, LIRNEasia hosted a workshop to launch digital tools created by Watchdog Sri Lanka, funded by GIZ’s Strengthening Social Cohesion and Peace in Sri Lanka (SCOPE) programme. Researchers, practitioners, activists and journalists attended to learn about these tools, and how they can potentially help them in their own lines of work.
Election Misinformation in Sri Lanka: Report Summary
Election misinformation poses a credible threat to Sri Lanka’s democracy. While it is expected that any electorate hardly operates with perfect information, our research finds that the presence of an election misinformation industry in Sri Lanka producing and disseminating viral false assertions has the potential to distort constituents’ information diets and sway their electoral choices.
Election Misinformation in South and South-East Asia: Report Summary
A powerful weapon in a time of global democratic backsliding, election misinformation may undermine democracy via a range of mechanisms. Election misinformation may influence an electorate to cast their ballots for candidates they otherwise might not have on the basis of incorrect information about a country’s economy, the candidates, or some other phenomenon.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
12, Balcombe Place, Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2024 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific