Adawso-Akuapem (E/R), Feb. 20, GNA - Mr Nii Armah Fleischer-Brock, Eastern Regional Manager of Ghana Telecom, on Friday announced that the company was to provide community payphones for 30 rural communities in the region.

He said Ghana Telecom would provide 30 of such communication equipment in each of the 10 regions of the country as apart of the company's corporate social responsibility. Mr. Fleischer-Brock disclosed these at the inauguration of 2,800 Ghana Cedis community payphones, the first of its kind in the region by the company, at Adawso-Akuapem.

He said the company had provided 57 phone booths to 14 selected Senior High Schools in the region and distributed a total of 12,249 starter packs to students, teachers and non-teaching staffs of the schools to enable the students to link up with their parents through telephones.

Mr. Fleischer-Brock thanked the chief and elders of Adawso-Akuapem for supporting the company and appealed to the people to help maintain the facilities.

Major B. Albert Don-Chebe (Rtd), Head of the Corporate and Customer Care Department of Ghana Telecom, said though the use of mobile phones was becoming common in many urban communities, it was not every one who could afford to buy the equipment.

He said with the introduction of the community phone booths by the company the people could buy the starter pack at one Ghana Cedi and use the payphones to communicate just like the use of a mobile phone. Major Don-Chebe said the facility was to enable all Ghanaians irrespective of their geographical location and economic status to have access to affordable communication adding that when the units on the starter park got finished, the user could buy a top up. He said the company considered the availability of One-torch network, population density of the community and its closeness to a major road, in the selection of communities to benefit from the facility.