Bahrain's leading telecom operator Batelco is calling time on 198 of its 1,100 payphones in the Kingdom citing a drop in the number of people using them.

Batelco has been providing Bahrain with payphones since 1975.

Batelco's media relations general manager Ahmed Al Janahi revealed payphone use had decreased by as much as 90 per cent in recent years.

He blamed the spread of increasingly affordable mobile phones for reduced demand for public payphones.

However, Al Janahi stressed that payphones wouldn't be disappearing altogether. 'With most technologies, we have seen them evolve rather than disappear completely,' he said.

'Batelco is removing only 198 out of 1,100 payphones, so only a small proportion. We simply want to improve efficiency and relocate some sets to better suited areas.'

'There will always be payphones at airports, for example. Payphones will feature in Bahrain for the foreseeable future,' said Janahi.

According to Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) statistics, mobile phones have well and truly taken over. The TRA found that the number of handsets rocketed from 300,825 in 2003 to 1.6 million by 2010.

With the latest population census putting Bahrain's total population at 1,234,571, that means there are hundreds of thousands more handsets than people.

In fact, the TRA's survey conducted last year found that mobile phone ownership was higher than that of cookers, cars or computers.

It also showed that out of the 1,052 people questioned, the majority did not use payphones.

Those who did only made up to two payphone calls on average each week.-TradeArabia News Service