Thursday, October 8, 2015

The demise of the landline....?!

About a couple of weeks ago, I  got a call from a female voice (for some reason they are always averse to giving their names), who  claimed to  be from Orange Telkom.

First, despite telling her that I was hearing impaired and if she could please, talk a little louder, she insisted on talking in a low voice - no change in the decibel level.

Second, after getting her to repeat herself a number of times so that I could understand why she was calling me, it finally reached the conclusion that they were planning to do away with landlines and introduce wireless phones.

When I asked her the reason, I was told that they were upgrading their systems. 

Now, just earlier this year, they announced to all their customers who  were using wireless phones to change over from CDMA to GSM for a so-called minimal fee! 

So, when this confusing company calls me up to  inform me that they were changing from landlines to wireless, it did not make sense and told her, so. I also asked her the reason for changing to battery dependent technology in a country where the power supply was highly questionable. Since landlines were not dependent on power, it was very convenient to use when all of our cell phone batteries gave up their ghosts thanks to countless and unpredictable outages for days on end sometimes.

Those of us who have landlines, can, in the above scenario use these to get hold of the outside world despite there being no  power.

There is also the matter of costs. Calling landlines is cheaper from outside.

So, why is Orange Telkom changing? Don't they realize that we need a service that is not dependent on batteries? In fact, after a few years of having such a phone will result in the batteries not being available anymore because that particular model of  phone will have become redundant. Why do  these people create problems and needless expenses?

And finally, could Orange sensitize its employees regarding various kinds of disabilities and deal with them accordingly and not frustrate the people whom they call, please?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have since (I wrote the above blog), been assured that Orange Telkom is NOT phasing out the land line but, is only doing away with its livebox.