PCO Full Form- What is the Full Form of PCO?

PCO is a Public Call Office which  is a phone installed for the common public in various areas in rural and urban India. Various telephone booths are in existence in different parts of the country. Public call offices came into existence to reduce the gap between people and increase the connectivity of the place. This article will highlight the significance of PCO. The first PCO was installed in India in 1960. It was one of the most revolutionary and innovative inventions of that time. It allowed people to communicate with each other easily. Multiple phone booths were installed in different parts of India. Initially, people were skeptical about using PCOs. There were various confusions and misunderstandings like whether it will be costly and trust issues like anyone else hearing their conversation. Gradually, all these misunderstandings and fears were resolved and people started utilizing this boon of technology.

What is PCO Full Form?

The full form of PCO in English is ‘Public call office.’ A telephone facility situated in a public place is called PCO. BSNL is the largest provider of PCO services in India. Few private sector telecom operators such as Tata Indicom, Reliance Infocomm, Idea and Airtel have also developed a significant number of PCOs. According to recent information released by the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, only 5.77 lakh total public call offices exist in the country. According to the report released from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), this count was 42 lakhs in 2006. Therefore, there is a drastic reduction in PCO facilities in India. This decrease is primarily because of the arrival of the WWW, full form of which is World Wide Web and advanced communication systems such as smartphones, iPhones etc making communication more accessible and cheaper.

History of PCOs

In the 1880s, a scientist named Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, while the phone booth design was constructed by William Gray in 1889 in the United States of America. Moreover, phone booths were installed in the United Kingdom in the 1920s. Phone booths were introduced to India in the year of 1980s and revolutionized the lives of the Indian citizens. In India, the concept of PCOs came into existence when the first PCO was introduced by telecom officer Mr R.L. Dube. PCOs are further divided into landline and wireless. The landline version is the oldest type of PCO, while the wireless source of communication is the latest one.

What is the Working procedure of PCO?

PCO is initially operated by dropping the coin in and dialing the phone number of the person you want to call. The telecommunication sector of PCOs is presided by the government giant, BSNL. Various other private companies like Reliance, Idea, Airtel are the emerging telecommunication companies. In previous times, the PCOs were operational postpaid PCOs with a landline. As per recent survey data, MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) and BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) control the majority of India’s phone booths market. There are two types of PCOs in operation currently in India. One type of PCO is manually or physically operated and the other type is utilized by physically putting a coin in the phone box. However, BSNL and MTNL are both prevalent telecom companies in India, but BSNL rules the majority of the market.

In India, the advanced form of PCOs has also evolved with the introduction of public internet cafés. It was launched in India in Bhopal by BSNL on the 18th of August, 2013. Mr. N.K Yadav, the chief general manager at the BSNL unit in Bhopal, operated it at the internet café, working and processing on a broadband connection.

Importance of PCOs

Advent of PCO has undoubtedly made calls and connections with people easier. It helps in building people-to-people ties in no time. Along With this, there are few more added advantages of PCO which are given below:

1. PCOs bridge the gap between people living far off places bringing them near.
2. PCOs are comparatively cheap, easy to use and less complex in the process.
3. PCOs are installed with booths everywhere to offer people the necessary privacy while making the calls.
4. PCOs, especially in rural areas are very beneficial as by using a single coin, you can connect to anyone on the phone call.

Interesting facts about PCO

1. Automatically, total entry of the calls made at the PCOs is recorded for the previous day.
2. Automatic entry of calls made is always present in the system.
3. State codes are also available readily if you are going to make a call to a particular state.
4. Shortcuts to the keyboards that are used for the purpose of making calls are also available.
5. A control panel is lit and showcases that the calls are in progress.
6. Printout of all the calls can be taken out too in PCO calls.