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By Lisa Burroughes, 19 November 1998 17:23

NEWS More than 90,000 Czechs took part in a 24-hour boycott of telephones and use of the Internet on Wednesday in protest over planned price increases of local calls by national telco SPT Telecom. Two thousand protestors showed up at a rally outside SPT's headquarters in Olsanke Namesti, and nearly 1,000 companies were reported to have taken part - including SPT's Internet Service Provider (ISP) division, Czech-based telecommunications firm Aliatel, and ISPs Sky Net and Bohemia Net. The government's vice premier, Pavel Mertlik, also showed his support for the boycott and expressed concern over the price increases. The organisers of the protest are expecting to meet with the telco on 20 November. Meanwhile, the Czech government announceed today that it is planning to sell its remaining shares in SPT and Ceske Radikomunikce by 2001. The state currently owns 51 per cent of both companies. Robin Bosworth, director of telcoms consultancy Schema, believes this could blow the protestors' plans off course. "Prior to the sell-off, the telco will have to rebalance its revenue. Traditionally, local tariffs are loss-making, and the telco makes its money on long distance calls and government subsidies. The rebalancing needs to be done because it can't cross subsidise - that means local calls will have to increase and long distance tariffs will have to come down," he said. The organisers of the protest claim there are approximately 350,000 Internet users in the Czech Republic.