Mumbai: Wilson’s PCO, STD Booth, a quaint relic of a bygone era, stands resolute opposite the Tardeo RTO office. Since 1994, Wilson, born with polio, has bravely manned this tiny enterprise, courtesy of the BMC. As the digital age progresses into the AI era, Wilson’s booth seems like a fading whisper of the past. Yet, he persists, catering to an eclectic clientele — the impoverished who cannot afford phones, individuals who have lost their devices, and mischievous college students seeking prank calls.
With a warm smile, Wilson shares his daily struggles. His booth, nestled beside a public toilet, is plagued by the stench, and four of his five landline phones have been out of order since Dec. His pleas to MTNL for repairs have yielded no result. As he speaks, his eyes cloud with sadness, “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to make even Rs 100 a day with just one working phone.”
But his role extends beyond just operating a PCO booth. He has become a beacon of guidance, directing strangers and locals alike through the maze of Mumbai’s streets. “Most people come and ask me for addresses,” he says with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, MTNL’s woes with non-functional landlines continue. Earlier, copper wires were stolen or damaged by petty thieves out to make a quick buck. And now the BMC’s spree of road digging does not augur well for the few limited land lines that are functioning. The Bank of India branch in Kherwadi, Bandra (East), suffered interruption to its computer network as road digging by a third party damaged MTNL cables last week. An MTNL officer told TOI, “The company’s merger with BSNL is under technical process. In fact, a revival is under way. We are replacing our old copper cables with a fibre optic network which can restore dead land lines within a week if technically feasible and if the locality is serviceable.”
MTNL, which stand for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, is a public enterprise under the Govt of India. The erstwhile Bombay Telephones metamorphosed into MTNL on April 1, 1986. In its heyday, subscribers waited years to acquire a land line connection and paid up to Rs 8,000. It was MTNL which introduced the pager and the 2G, 3G networks. The PSU once had 60,000 employees, which dropped to 2,000 in 2023. Its downfall came in 2011-12 when the Centre ordered MTNL to pay Rs 10,000 crore as licence fee for procuring 3G spectrum for just the two cities it serves — Mumbai and Delhi. Increasing cellphone spread did the rest.