50% public phones useless

50% public phones useless

PONTIANAK, West Kalimantan: More than half of all the public
telephones in the city are out of order and the city
administration has no immediate plans to repair them.

Syaiful Mukmin, head of the local branch of state-owned PT
Telkom, said here yesterday that 160 out of 311 coin-operated
public phones were inoperative.

He said there were no plans to fix the broken phones in the
near future due to budget restraints.

The official said repairs would cost at least Rp 200,000 for
each phone. If the damage was extensive the cost would be more.

"Public phones often break down or are damaged repeatedly,"
Syaiful was quoted by Antara as saying.

He blamed vandals for the widespread damage. (aan)