April 15, 2002	Monday	Safar 1, 1423

KARACHI, April 14: There are a large number of bureaucratic obstacles to converting an analogue phone connection (a six-digit number) to a digital phone connection (a seven-digit phone connection).

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Monday that the Pakistan Telecommunication Company had failed to convert all analogue telephone connections to digital phone connections despite the fact that such a campaign had been started at least 10 years ago.

“It takes the PTCL a lot of time to procure the infrastructure required to convert analogue phones to digital ones. It is extremely difficult for the phone utility to entertain conversion applications promptly,” a PTCL official explained.

He added that occasionally the PTCL went for exchange-wise conversion of analogue phones to digital phones.

Sources working in PTCL telephone exchanges described to Dawn what a subscriber went through when he filed an application for the conversion of an analogue telephone connection to a digital one.

A subscriber submits his application for analogue-to-digital conversion to a PTCL customer services divisional engineer. On his first visit to the telephone exchange, the subscriber inquires about the documents he will have to attach with his application. The documents are photocopies of the last phone bill and the national identity card.

On his second visit to the telephone exchange the subscriber submits his application to the divisional engineer who gives the application to an assistant clerk.

The assistant clerk sends the application to a PTCL maintenance divisional engineer, asking him to make a PR (possibility report).

The maintenance divisional engineer asks his SDO (sub- divisional officer) cable to make the PR. The SDO cable inspects the existing cable connection and checks with officials concerned if another connection can be issued. He, then, sends the PR back to the customer services divisional engineer.

If the PR is ‘okay’ — meaning that it is possible for the PTCL to convert the analogue phone connection to a digital one — the customer services divisional engineer breaks the good news to the subscriber and asks him to wait for a demand note, which is mailed to the subscriber’s home. (If the PR is not okay, the telephone exchange issues a ‘regrets’ letter to the subscriber.)

With a bit of luck, the demand note should reach the subscriber’s home in a couple of days. He, then, submits one of the copies of the demand note to the PTCL customer services divisional engineer. The assistant clerk makes an advice note and sends it to two SDOs — the SDO cable (for pair allotment) and the SDO line and wire.