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This year, the Lithuanian telecommunications company Telia, which has so far serviced and maintained public telephones and is required by law, has yet to guarantee the operation of at least 99 public telephones in the country.
“All phones will remain in the places where the majority of calls are made. Also, due to the pandemic situation, the devices will not be removed in hospitals and nursing homes,” says Audrius Stasiulaitis, spokesperson for Telia Lietuva.
Public telephones: obsolete unnecessary?
In a country where there are more active mobile SIM cards than the population, public telephones have been a lossy service for more than a decade.
According to a study commissioned by the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) on the needs of recipients of universal electronic communications services, the absolute majority of respondents (99%) did not use public telephone services during a period of one year.
89 percent. all respondents say that if the use of public telephones does not change if public telephones do not change, they will continue to use mobile services.
According to annual statistics compiled by Telia, more than half of the phones are never called per year, and in all of 2020 the average duration of calls made was only 36 seconds.
“The technology itself is morally out of date, so we have been asking RRT for permission to refuse to provide this unprofitable service for several years,” says a representative from Telia.
People who call the hospital go unnoticed
Public telephones will be left in hospitals and nursing homes. How many will be left – the responsible telecommunications company cannot say, but the representatives of the hospitals already interviewed say that they are not needed, because those who want to call public telephones do not see each other.
“There are three public telephones, they all work, but no one has seen anyone use them,” says Vytautas Riaubiškis, a specialist in the Communication Department of the Republican Panevėžys Hospital.
There is also a working payphone at Alytus County S. Kudirka Hospital, but the hospital administration is also unaware of their callers here.
Public phone service has been available at Šiauliai Republican Hospital for decades, but all have been abandoned for the past six months when their need has decreased significantly.
“The reason is very simple: it is not necessary. Hospital visitors, patients actively use personal mobile devices.
Staff use work phones and cell phones accordingly. For several years, we have seen that such equipment is not used in the hospital and has simply been abandoned, ”says Sonata Tenytė, a public relations specialist at the hospital.
In prisons, this is the only way to get around
Department of Prisons under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania, this service provided by Telia, in prisons, 2018. has been denied, it is provided by other telecommunications companies.
Prison officials say that public phone services are badly needed because there are no real short-term or long-term meetings, so pay phones are still the only way to communicate.
The two Kaunas interrogation isolator units have a total of 27 public telephones with which prisoners communicate by phone, and 7 video and audio phone booths where they can communicate online.
Consequently, detainees can use these services once a day and the call itself lasts up to 15 minutes.
“The demand is huge, the queues are really big. There are several hundred prisoners and only a few public telephones, so not even everyone can call during the day, ”says Airidas Balkauskas, deputy director of the Department of Resocialization at the Kaunas Retention Center.
Panevėžys Correctional Home has 8 public telephones and 2 video and audio phone booths. Loreta Skrickienė, deputy director of the institution, says there is no shortage of people who want to call them here.
“Everyone wants to communicate with their relatives, there are no quarantine meetings during this period due to the pandemic, so it is even very important to make sure that everyone who wants to can do so. Public telephones in correctional facilities are really necessary, ”he says.
It is planned to transpose the European Electronic Communications Code into Lithuanian law later this year, according to which public telephones would no longer be considered a universal communication service to be provided.
Therefore, after the passage of this law, public telephones in Lithuania (except in prisons) could be completely abandoned.
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