Business Today Net Special

Telex Is Dead (Stop)

Smothered by a surfeit of electronic alternatives, teleprinter is being put to sleep by the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.

By Ashutosh Sinha

It is rickety, big, and non-digital. It survived the era of the hotline, but is struggling in the age of Hotmail. The telex, folks, is dying. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL), which first began offering the service in 1986, has decided to let the service bleed to death. Says S. Sundaresan, Director (Finance), MTNL: "It doesn't make sense to continue with the service in this age of electronic communications."

With the size of the market for the service shrinking, MTNL realised that the revenues were negligible. With an installed capacity of 20,056 in Delhi and Mumbai, there were only 5,323 takers at the end of March 2000--1,873 in Delhi, and 3,450 in Mumbai. Worse yet, the number of subscribers at the end of September 2000, had fallen to 4,221. With annual revenues of just over Rs.10 crore from the service, there is not much to lose either.

But there is likely to be some resistance from the existing subscribers. The reason? Telex, and not a fax, is considered a legal document in some countries. And among MTNL's subscribers are multinational banks and corporations that come under jurisdiction of courts outside in India. The problem, however, is that with the market for the service shrinking, component vendors may soon be getting out the business. Warns Ramani Iyer, Chief General Manager, MTNL (Mumbai): "Sometime in the near future, we may not get cable pairs to maintain these lines. So, anyway, the service will have to be withdrawn."

What hath the e-age wrought.

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