DOTC losing millions on public calling offices

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) is losing millions of pesos from the maintenance and operations of public calling offices (PCOs) installed in various parts of the country.

Rough estimates showed that in 1998 alone, the DOTC, through its attached agency, the Telecommunications Office (Telof), already suffered a net loss of almost P40 million.

The 673 PCOs were put up by another DOTC attached agency, the Municipal Telephone Project Office (MTPO) which has been in existence for almost 10 years now.

However, the facilities deteriorated to low levels since they were not properly maintained and no one was operating them. Telof was then tasked to be the interim operator but the office is also plagued by funding requirements.

The DOTC has been trying to bid out the PCOs since 1998 but both privatization attempts failed due to lack of interested parties.

PCOs are not considered a profitable business, especially in rural areas where the demand for telecom service is not great.

However, the MTPO is mandated to install such facilities in line with the government thrust to provide universal access to basic communications.

Of the 673 PCOs, only 343 are operational; 285 are non-operational; 37 are for rehabilitation; and eight are suspended.

The MTPO, earlier, complained that there were instances when some PCOs are seriously vandalized by the people due to lack of personnel to man them.

While revenue collections from the PCOs reached P29 million in 1998, Telof had to spend much more on operations and maintenance.

According to Telof, government only had a share of P9.6 million from the P29 million revenue collection since the balance went to the interconnecting carriers.