If we look back say eight to ten years from now, we could see a thriving business of public call offices (PCOs). But with the widespread use and people’s dependence on cellular phones that sector has seen a drastic decline just within a decade. “A few years ago setting up a PCO was a lucrative business and one could see three to five PCOs in every market but now the situation is completely different and one could hardly find a PCO in any market,” said Murtaza Hussain, who is still running this business. He said the struggle to survive in that line of work had led the PCO owners to add to their business the mobile phones, mobile phone accessories and mobile phone calling cards etc. “No one can deny the fact that every innovation is followed by another, which sometimes completely outdate the former and the same happened with the PCOs. Even the cell phones might not be there for long, should they are replaced by another more innovative instrument of communication,” Hussain predicted in a philosophical vein.
During a partial survey of the city markets, Pakistan Today found that there was no proper public call office in all the major markets including Jinnah Super Market, Aabpara Market, Sitara Market, Super Market, Ayub Market and others. There were, however, some single-set PCOs still being run in some shops that were selling other items as well. Azhar Gulbar, who runs a single-set PCO beside his main business of selling fresh fruit juices in the Super Market, said: “Earlier when I used to run a full-fledged PCO comprising around 12 small cabins, I would earn handsome money. But over the last several years, the whole business came to naught.” He said with the coming of mobile phones, there were fewer customers and he had to reduce the number of sets from eight to five and then five to the last one I have now,” he said, adding that then he had to run a fresh fruit justices point to make ends meet.
During the survey it was also observed that a number of PCO owners had converted their business into Internet cafés. “People do business to earn bread for their children. I once used to earn money from my PCO here at the Sitara Market and when I felt the business was really bad, I shifted to an Internet café,” said Shafqat Mahmood. Talking to this scribe, mobile phone users said they had taken a sigh of relief after getting rid of those PCOs. They said it was painful to pay extra for making calls from PCOs because the owners would arbitrarily charge them.
“Gone are the days… when PCO owners would charge extra from their customers. I still remember when I had to pay Rs 20 for a two-minute local call,” recalled, Asghar Shah, who now has a mobile phone. He said things were changing and the PCO business was a history now.
Pakistan Today learnt that in the heydays of PCOs one would need around three to five lakh rupees to start the business but at present one could start with only thirty thousand rupees since there was no future in that. Earlier, there used to be calling card-based PCOs of various companies such as Worldcall, Telecard, Unitell and the PTCL. Later, they were replaced by PCOs operated by cellular companies. During the survey, Pakistan Today noticed that somehow the PCO business was still alive particularly near the bus stops in the Perwadahi and Faizabad areas. “Though, my business has witnessed a significant decline over the years but I’m still earning around Rs 800 to 1200 every day,” said a PCO runner at Raja Market in Faizabad, wishing not to be named.
Adios PCOs!
