The Ministry of Transport promises to submit amendments to the law in the near future, which would allow to abandon payphones that are basically no longer used in Lithuania this year.
As the telecommunications company Telia informed BNS, the law currently obliges 213 payphones to be maintained and serviced, although they are used only a few to a dozen times a year.
Telia points out that payphones have been a loss-making service for more than a decade, but it has been hasty to abandon them entirely on the grounds that these machines can be used to call the General Assistance Center (BPC).
"But even the emergency number 112 is called from payphones only in isolated cases a year. In addition, it is impossible to identify calls from payphones, so there are often false messages that disturb the work of the BPC," the company informed BNS.
The Ministry of Transport indicated that following the change in the directive establishing the European Electronic Communications Code, the obligation to provide telephone communication services via payphones is no longer foreseen, but the Electronic Communications Act and other national legislation still need to be changed.
"The Ministry of Communications, together with the Communications Regulatory Authority, prepared drafts of amendments to the Law on Electronic Communications of the Republic of Lithuania (...) and accompanying laws (...) After the change in the leadership of the Ministry, additional consultations are being conducted with market participants and the project is being refined, it will be submitted to the Government in the near future", - BNS informed ministry.
With the government's approval, the changes will also have to be adopted Seimas, later the decision of the Communications Regulatory Authority will be required - this service was reviewed once a year, until May. Last year, the number of mandatory payphones was reduced from 392 to 213.
According to Telia, at least 12 European Union countries have already abandoned payphones as universal services.
Author Ignas Jačauskas
