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)