In a pioneering move, private players, with a combined market share of 47.01 per cent, have overtaken BSNL in the PCO segment.

In the April-June 2006 quarter, the number of PCOs increasedfrom 4 million to 4.5 million. Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), with 173,529 and 57,000 additions, respectively, witnessed the maximum growth followed by BSNL at 48,529. In contrast, MTNL's PCO count declined by 5,600.