Boom time for PCO owners

BSNL stir leads to surge in business for PCOs with Tata, Reliance connections

The ongoing stir by BSNL executives has meant good times for public call office owners with Tata Indicom or Reliance connections in Gujarat.

While thousands of Bidesh Sanchar Nigam users in the city have been unable to use their phones for the past two days, those wanting to make urgent calls were queuing outside the Tata or Reliance PCO booths.

Avzer Zohaib of Krishna Travels and Communication in the Pritamnagar area, who has a BSNL, Tata Indicom and Reliance Infocomm connection at his PCO, said: "Thanks to my Tata Indicom and Reliance connections, I am having a great business while my BSNL connection has been useless for last two days."

Hetal Shah, a bank executive in Ahmedabad, said making an STD call from a mobile phone is expensive. "To connect to my relatives in Mumbai, I had to take the help of a conference call through one of the PCOs that uses Tata Indicom".

Ketan Shah of Arihant Xerox in Ellisbridge area said people came rushing to his Tata Indicom and Reliance PCO to make urgent calls as BSNL lines were crippled in the state.

Some of the callers are relatives of patients who don't have mobiles and have to make urgent calls, added Shah. "We noticed that the volume of calls to Delhi and Mumbai were particularly high," said Sunil Gamadia, a PCO owner in Ahmedabad.

Meanwhile, BSNL employees continued with their agitation. Rakesh Mehta, joint secretary, Sanchar Nigam Executive Association, said: "Talks have already started with the management to sort out the differences."

"We are being forced to go on an indefinite work-to-rule until the promises the management had made when we were absorbed four years ago are fulfilled," Mehta added.

He further said that group-B employees of the Department of Telecommunication that were absorbed into BSNL were promised that their pay scales would be reviewed after every four years. However, there has been no response from the management, Mehta said.