Many public phones out of order

PADANG, West Sumatra: Nearly half of all public telephones in the province are out of order.

The head of the provincial telephone company, Teguh Widodo, said yesterday that 41.6 percent of public telephones, both coin and card-operated, were found to be damaged during a recent survey.

"The pay phones often become a target of vandals," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He did not reveal the number of telephones which were broken or the number available in the province but said that in Padang the telephone company had set up 300 card-operated telephones and another 800 coin-operated ones. (mds)