Public Phone Networks Grow

<BR>Metrocom is threatening the city's phone-booth monopolist, St Petersburg Taxophones (SPT), with serious competition.<BR>SPT claims that the increased competition has yet to affect its monopoly in this sector of the telecommunications market, although a tendency toward price reductions has been noticed.<BR>ZAO Metrocom has the exclusive right to develop the city telephone network in the city metro, and began to build its phone-booth network in November of last year. At present, the company has 104 card-operated phones and 63 token-operated units. SPT controls 1,800 city units.<BR>By the end of this year, Metrocom's network should contain about 400 telephones, making up 20% of the market by the number of units. "Given that sort of situation, one can talk about an intensification of competition," says Sergei Muranevich. "It is possible that companies will have to reduce prices for their services."<BR>Considering the location of telephones (3-4 million people pass through the metro every day), Metrocom will be able to capture more than 20% of the city's public telephone traffic. Heavy negotiations have allowed SPT to work its way onto metro territory, as well. At first, SPT's proposals were not viable for Metrocom, but the company was able to find a compromise. "Although our proposals for phonecard 'roaming' have remained unanswered," says Pavel Tereshyenko of Metrocom.