Karnataka IT Minister Unveils ePCO

Karnataka's first 'ePCO', offering multiple online services such as e-ticketing, was inaugurated by Information Technology minister Katta Subramanya Naidu.

The ePCO, a joint initiative of Intel, the State PCO Asociation, BSNL Karnataka and ItzCash, will offer citizens online services, including railway, airline and bus ticket booking, utility bill payments, mobile recharges, insurance and banking and other online transactions.

"The ePCO is an excellent step in making technology more affordable and accessible to a much larger number of people," R Ravichandran, director, Sales, Intel South Asia, said.

"Initiatives like ePCOs are good examples of private players joining hands to drive technology and employment opportunities in rural parts of Karnataka," said Naidu.

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Intel, the facilitator of this initiative, helped other partners to structure the initial rollout of ePCO-1 at two locations identified by the Karnataka PCO Owners Association, which will identify the right PCO operators and also facilitate the roll out of the initiative, creating awareness as well as providing training to those involved.

Rajendra S V, President, Pay Phone Welfare Association of India, Karnataka PCO Dealers and PCO Owners Association, said, "PCOs have become extremely popular and have succeeded in taking telecommunication to the rural areas already. Leveraging on the existing market penetration, this will be a great opportunity to take broadband to rural India. The ePCOs will offer a good revenue model".

T S Kuppuswamy, chief general manager, Karnataka Circle, said, "PCO operators will use ITZcash to offer the above services and it would help them to earn more revenue in addition to normal PCO voice calls". (PTI)