STD Owners Plight - Government Role

With the ads of Vodafone & airtel doing the rounds on the TV, i was reminded of the STD PCO from which i used to call distant relatives & friends (even girls too).

In the vodafone ad Irfan Khan clearly described what a typical STD booth used to be. A telephone directory sometimes & sometimes a platform to talk even while waiting for your turn But now With no Business in hand clearly they have slept.

When our mobile charges wwere high, even then some people used to call through the coin box available at every next shop. In Airtel ad, they have declared all local calls at Re 1 & Now with top-ups available you can also make cheap std & local calls.

Earlier we either used to wait in queue for making a STD call or A richer person used to order a trunk call. People used to wait till 11'o Clock as the STD call was cheaper in the night. Even the mobile service when started the outgoing call was charged at 32 RS a min & incoming at 16 Rs a min. So there used to be very few elite persons using a mobile.

But the scenrio has changed dramatically now. Now the landline customers have decreased & they are moving towards wireless technology in droves. Even the wireless companies are attracting customers like anything. Mobiles have become so cheap that u can have a piece for even 2yr old in ur family. Call rates have dropped drastically. And even top-ups available to make them even cheaper. mails are passe now, the SMS-MMS are the in-thing now. Also the convenience of personal communication & small size.

Even the state-owned BSNL has introduced schemes in wireless mobiles that no one can provide. This technology has made the landline at bay. But from all this development the STD owners are kept at bay. They are not allowed to have the benefits of cheaper cellphone services. so what could be the solution for them. Lets see some of them.


Well the government pushing broadband services in Urban & rural areas with even declaring Year 2007 as the year of broadband. why doesnt the govt provide broadband access to these STD owners. With the computers available at 5000 bucks they can earn handsome money by operating a cybercafe even with one computer. About the maintenance security policies & AMC could do their part. With basic training given they can operate the Cybercafe.

I often get tired at long queues for booking railway ticket. even with new system introduced they take 1-2 hrs to book a ticket on a metro station. The railway agents charge a heck lot of money for tickets. So any solution available. Yes if IRCTC & BSNL join their hands for the welfare of STD people. With the broadband available at their end they could book tickets & print them as well.

They can also work as collection centres for a lot of utility center be it could be Gas, telephone bill, credit card bills or light bill. While starting up a separate centre for collection of money could cost a lot of money to the company itself they could be useful to the owners. And with lot of companies under govt control, atleast the govt can think something for them.

BSNL could introduce VOIP services on broadband platform specially for those people who live abroad & their relatives who would like to contact them. With Internet telephony services being used ISD services are on the constant decline. So it could be used to those 2 ML STD owners to have their Internet telephony service & compete with those private IT service providers.

Having provided with broadband service a lot of service can originate from then onward. The above ones are just few. The broadband Internet will give a new life to those people whose whole family might be dependent on this business. May the bosses at this companies could think & do even more than these.