Customers complain of broken pay phones
Customers complain of broken pay phones
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Have you ever been in dire need of a public phone but all the
available ones nearby are out of order? Annoying, isn't it?
Be prepared, as it could happen to you anywhere in Jakarta, as
many of the payphones are out of order.
Effendy, a newspaper agent, said he was frequently unable to
find usable payphones.
"Out-of-order public phones have forced me to look for wartel
(telecommunications kiosks) instead," said Effendy, who added
that he often used public phones to contact his customers.
"I have to use public phones to inform my customers about the
paper being late or remind them of the deadline for paying their
subscriptions," said Effendy.
He alleged that 90 percent of public phones were out of order.
Effendy has a phone at home, but the peripatetic nature of his
job requires him to use public phones, as a wartel or a cellphone
would be too expensive for someone like him, on a low income.
Public phones are still a vital facility, despite the
popularity of cellphones with the general public, especially
teenagers.
Rommy, an employee of a private firm in West Jakarta, said
that he sometimes used a public phone if his cellphone was not
working properly or the battery was being recharged.
"After looking around for five minutes for a public phone to
call home, I saw a row of five payphone stalls. But to my
surprise, all of them were out of order," said Rommy.
Amid mounting dissatisfaction from public phone users over the
damaged phones, spokesperson in Jakarta of state-owned
telecommunications firm PT Telkom Thomik Armawan played down the
accusations.
"We never leave our payphones unrepaired," Thomik said. He
also claimed that the damaged lines stood at only 3 percent of a
total of 67,839 lines every month. Telkom provides services to
more than 2.4 million subscribers.
The out-of-order phones would be immediately repaired by
Telkom technicians, who periodically emptied the coinboxes and
checked the state of the phones, he added.
However, in contrast to his claim, The Jakarta Post found on
Thursday that out of 32 public phones alone in Kemandoran, South
Jakarta, only 11 were usable. In Kayu Manis, East Jakarta, most
of the public phones were also out of order.
Thomik said most of the damage was mainly caused by vandalism.
"About 68 percent of the damage to phones is due to sabotage,
while the remaining 32 percent is caused by internal and
technical problems," said Thomik.
Thomik said phone handsets were among the sensitive items that
were usually vandalized.
He revealed that the coinbox was a popular target for
criminals, as it could hold Rp 500,000 to Rp 1 million in cash.
Thomik revealed that Telkom was often forced to relocate its
public phones to safer places for fear of vandalism.
"We must be realistic in this business. We don't want to
suffer losses because our public phones are damaged," he said.
"If we check the coinbox and find that the amount of money
inserted has continued to decrease, we will consider relocating
the phone from a quiet place to a busier location," said Thomik.
The transitional period before a line was completely
relocated, Thomik said, usually took some time, in order to
notify the customers about the change.
Thomik said that if anyone found a phone out of order they
should report it to Telkom so that it could be repaired
immediately.
However, Hesti, a secondary school student, was skeptical,
saying that many public phones had been left unrepaired for
months.
"What's the use if they (Telkom) install five phone lines here
but only one is usable ?" Hesti queried.
She complained that people often had to queue, as only a
single line was available there.