KARACHI, June 14: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company has converted all analogue phone numbers in the city to digital phone numbers.
PTCL officials said that in a month-long exercise the phone utility had converted more than 88,000 analogue phone numbers — having six digits — into digital phone numbers — having seven digits.
They added that for this purpose the general managers of the two southern telecommunication regions in the city — STR-II and STR-III — had been tasked to finish the conversion exercise by June.
The STR-III general manager, Nafees Siddiqui, told Dawn that in the North Karachi exchange 25,000 analogue phone numbers had been converted to digital phone numbers, in the Nazimabad exchange 10,000 phone numbers, in the Gulshan exchange 20,000 phone numbers and in the Malir Model Colony exchange 10,000 phone numbers.
“The PTCL decided to convert all analogue phone numbers in the city to digital phone numbers because it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep analogue phone connections functional. The spare parts of analogue phone connections were not available and their maintenance was very cumbersome,” he added.
The STR-II general manager, Akhtar Jameel, told Dawn that in the Lyari exchange 1,200 analogue phone numbers had been converted to digital phone numbers, in the Korangi exchange 2,500 phone numbers, and in the Clifton exchange 10,000 phone numbers.
“The PTCL revenue will considerably increase as a result of this massive conversion exercise because the analogue telephone connections could not dial mobile phones. They did not have access to International Subscriber Dialling and Subscriber Trunk Dialling. The analogue phone connections could not hold onto Internet connections for long.”
Previously, a subscriber used to overcome a large number of bureaucratic obstacles in order to convert his analogue phone number to digital phone number. He used to submit his application for analogue-to-digital conversion to a PTCL customer services divisional engineer. On his first visit to the telephone exchange, the subscriber inquired about the documents he would have to attach with his application. The documents were photocopies of the last phone bill and the national identity card.
On his second visit to the telephone exchange the subscriber submitted his application to the divisional engineer who passed the application on to an assistant clerk.
The assistant clerk sent the application to a PTCL maintenance divisional engineer, asking him to make a PR (possibility report).
The maintenance divisional engineer asked his SDO (sub-divisional officer), cable, to make the PR. The SDO-cable inspected the existing cable connection and checked with officials concerned if another connection could be issued. He, then, sent the PR back to the customer services divisional engineer.
If the PR was ‘okay’ — meaning that it was possible for the PTCL to convert the analogue phone connection to a digital one — the customer services divisional engineer broke the good news to the subscriber and asked him to wait for a demand note, which was mailed to the subscriber’s home. (If the PR was not okay, the telephone exchange issued a ‘regrets’ letter to the subscriber.)
