KARACHI, Nov 2: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company is in no mood to invest in those telephone exchanges which can no longer issue new phone connections. Sources told Dawn that a large number of telephone exchanges in the city had gone “dry” where subscribers could not obtain a new telephone connection even on payment.

They recalled that in an ironical move the phone utility had issued around 90,000 free connections a couple of months back.

They wondered why the phone connections were given out free then when the PTCL knew well that it would not be able to issue new connections afterwards.

“There are telephone exchanges like the North Karachi exchange and the Gulistan-i-Jauhar exchange where new connections cannot be issued any more. I wonder why the authorities are not willing to invest in these exchanges,” said an official of the PTCL on condition of anonymity. He added that while there was a shortage of new connections all over Karachi, STR-III was in particularly bad shape.

A subscriber of the Gulistan-i-Jauhar exchange told Dawn that when he shifted from one place to another in the same telephone exchange, he applied for the shifting of his phone number (4028707) on Aug 9, 2005. “Two months on, my phone has not been shifted to my new residence apparently because they do not have new connections at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar exchange,” he complained.

A spokesman for the PTCL said that wireless local loop connections would soon be offered by the phone utility to those subscribers who wanted to get new connections. He added that demand for new connections was also being ascertained which would serve as input when the PTCL decided to develop the infrastructure to issue new landline connections. He said subscribers unable to get new connections should be patient.