'17' becomes a nerve wrecking exercise

The performance of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd's computerised directory assistance system-better known as inquiry 17- has become a nerve wrecking exercise and deteriorated to such an extent that subscribers have to make a number of calls before they get connected to telephone operators.
The subscribers said that their calls get disconnected after getting through to the computerised directory assistance system. When they get connected to inquiry 17, they hear a pre-recorded message telling them that all lines are currently busy. After a while they are told that their call is being transferred to such-and-such operator but then their call drops. Sometimes a subscriber has to make eight to 10 calls to get a number. The PTCL high-ups are aware of the fault but they had done little to rectify it, the subscribers said.
"Recently, I dialed PTCL directory assistance 17. Instantly, a recorded message said that all lines were busy and that I should wait, which repeated endlessly, until after about ten minutes an operator attended the phone and gave me a wrong number of a leading hotel in Islamabad. After a few minutes, I again dialled the 17 inquiry to get the correct number and after another round of wait, the call was transferred to yet another operator and the some process was repeated. I gave up," said Mirza Iqbal, a businessman in Rawalpindi.
Sultan Ahmad, an industrialist in Islamabad, has to do a lot of business-related travelling in and out of the city. In the process, he has to get in touch with clients.
"As a frequent 17 user, I have few problems with the facility. I think the PTCL has to update their directory primarily replacing old numbers with new ones. Then there should be an option of inquiring at least two numbers from the operator at a time. Since the system is computerised, one can ask just one telephone number at a time and has to redial which takes minutes in connecting," he observed.
"We do not have current year telephone directory for Islamabad-Rawalpindi. Since, the last one was printed in January 2001, the one is obliged to inquire from 17 directory assistance for every number. The new directory would certainly help reduce pressure on inquiry 17," said Usman Malik, a university teacher.
When contacted, a PTCL official, on the condition of not to be named, said that since there were complaints about phone inquiry 17, either being engaged all the time or left unattended for long periods, the PTCL opted for the latest technology available for this system and a mechanism was put in place, which enabled subscribers to get connected to the centralised directory assistance system even if operators create the whole mess.
The technology works fine; the scarcity of operators' one reason of negligence is that previously, the performance of operators handling phone queries was closely observed. This is no longer the case, the official deplored.
He said that they were fully aware of keeping pace with the demands. Being a 24-hour service we have to provide telephone numbers on the first inquiry, but the workload is increasing day by day. The PTCL did not have as many operators as required to handle the phone queries of its hundreds of thousands of subscribers, he deplored.