New Delhi: As many as 44,922 public telephone booths or PCOs have shut down in the last three years while around 17,000 such facilities are still operational across the country, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. Minister of state for communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar in a written reply to Lok Sabha said that the decline in the number of PCOs (public call offices) is attributed to the widespread adoption of mobile technology, increased tele density, and the availability of affordable tariffs for mobile services. “PCOs are being shut down over a period of time. It has been estimated that around 44,922 PCOs have been shut down in the last three years,” the minister said. According to the data shared by Sekhar, a total of 16,958 PCOs are still working. Of them 1,519 are in rural areas and 15,439 in urban areas as on June 30, 2024.