Tele-quiz disrupts phone system
Tele-quiz disrupts phone system
JAKARTA (JP): The former chief of the Jakarta office of state- owned telecommunications company PT Telkom has urged television stations not to air tele-quiz shows during peak hours.
John Welly said over the weekend that it would be better if the stations aired such shows earlier than the current airing time.
"Currently, the shows are broadcast from 7.30 p.m until 8 p.m. This is a busy period because many people are taking advantage of the discounted rate provided by the company," Welly said.
Welly, who was replaced by Bambang Ryadi Oemar on Friday, explained that PT Telkom gives several discount rates every day: 25 percent for using the telephone from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., 50 percent from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and 75 percent from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
"Most of the customers are using the telephones at home during the discounted periods," he said.
He added that due to this, the disconnected call rate during that time is high because the computer in the telephone exchange can only accommodate a certain number of connections.
Welly explained that one exchange serves about 10,000 lines but it can only connect several lines a second. "When the number of people from one telephone exchange, who intends to use the telephone at the same time, is higher than the capacity, some will be put on a waiting list," he added.
Welly was commenting on complaints raised by many PT Telkom customers because their telephone lines are dead whenever they try to participate in the tele-quiz held by the privately-owned RCTI television station.
Some of the customers even charged that there was a scam behind the problem, saying that there were certain officials of the telecommunications company who intentionally cut the lines.
"It is not true, their connections are put on the waiting list, which makes it as if the lines are disconnected," Welly argued.
Therefore, he added, it is recommended to change the airing time of the shows earlier, for example between 3 to 6 p.m. because not many people use telephone lines during that time.
In an effort to overcome the problem Welly also urged RCTI to use the hunting system and provide answering machine announcing that the line is busy.
"By installing those facilities the callers will know that they failed to go through instantly and they will quickly disconnect the call," Welly said. (yns)