End of an Era - STD Phone booths

I was in Mahabalipuram for my market survey project when I received an important call. But the call got disconnected since my mobile ran out of battery. Since the call was an important one, I started searching for a STD booth or PCO. To my surprise, there were no STD booths in the whole street. I asked a nearby shopkeeper and he directed me to an Internet center where there is a Local/STD booth. Thanks to the directions, I was able to locate the Internet center and finish my call. During the call, everyone in the Internet center was looking at me in a peculiar way as if I am doing an unorthodox work.

I found this phenomenon to be strange. The PCOs or commonly known as STD Booths are disappearing!!! Five years back, this was a good business with at least a PCO machine in most of the streets. Now, it has almost vanished. Is it because of the advent of extensive mobile services or the competitive markets that have wiped off the PCO industry? The owner of the center told that there are very few who use the STD phones these days and most of the STD booth owners have shifted to Internet and mobile recharge services. These days, everyone has a mobile and with cheaper call rates, why would anyone bother to use a STD booth or a PCO. In the past, it used to generate a revenue of Rs 100-200 per day and now it hardly brings a revenue of Rs 20 a day.

I was shocked. In five years time, the mobile services have drastically changed the telecom services in the country. The yellow STD booths which was a thriving and profitable business till 2007, was now declining and the market of the STD booths has been replaced by the mobile phones. Like many other products, these STD booths have also become a thing of the past.

I interacted with a few local persons and asked them what will they do in case there is no signal for one of the mobile services and they need to call someone urgently. The people laughed and said that most of them are using dual cell phones with two different mobile service providers. So there will not be any such problems. Also, the kirana store has coupons for recharge in case their balance becomes zero. In case of emergency, they will use the telephone with coin box.

The kirana store owner who has the telephone with coin box says that the reduction in call rates and personal mobile phones has brought down the demand for using STD phone booths. No one bothers as they have their own phone booths in their pockets.

It seems like the telegrams, the STD phone booths are becoming relics of past glory and with changing times, the consumers are moving forward with new products.

Manikant US

FT13438