Public Telephone Booths Are Back
In a bid to revolutionize the communication sector, capture more customers and improve on its services, the Cameroon Telecommunication Corporation (CAMTEL), has reintroduced public telephone booths into its business line.
About 70 per cent of the booths are managed by private individuals.
In a bid to revolutionize the communication sector, capture more customers and improve on its services, the Cameroon Telecommunication Corporation (CAMTEL), has reintroduced public telephone booths into its business line.
The new booths have a great deal of innovations aimed at giving customers the greatest satisfaction, protecting them and rendering calls cheaper. One of the major innovations include the introduction of magnetic credit cards and opening up to the private sector. In effect, the new public telephone booth operation has been categorized into three: private telephone booths owned and managed by private individuals and authorized by CAMTEL, calling points established through partnership and ordinary public booths installed by CAMTEL. Two types of public booths exist: fixed telephone and CTphone booths.
Private booths are issued to people who agree with CAMTEL to use them as free calling points with the use of easy cards. The owners must assure guarantee of protection for the booths. According to an authority of CAMTEL, 70 per cent of the existing booths are in private hands. They are located mostly in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé.
In the same vein, Calling Points are established through partnership between CAMTEL and someone or a group. They agree to place the booth in a place that can serve a greater number of people: university campus, public markets, police stations, etc.
Easy cards can be bought at USD2, 4, 10 or 20. Public booth calls are comparatively cheaper. Consumption is at 50Cents USD per minute for fixed telephone booths and 25Cents USD per minute for CTphone booths during working hours. The rates drop systematically during off peak hours (Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and between 8pm and 7am.) to CFA 25 per minute.
The public telephone project sets out to cover the national territory. Some 12 booths have been set up in Yaounde while over 10 are already operational in Douala. Some 230 calling points have been created nationwide for fixed telephones and 31 for CTphone. In the meantime, 55 calling points have been constructed at post offices.
From every indication, many people are yet to rediscover the public telephone booth. People operating them have all the pains to explain their advantages to the public.