The Unwonted Woes of Cyber café’s

What exactly is a cyber café? The question arises. In plain terms it would mean an establishment that doubles as an Internet access point, as well as, a café. This is not so in Pakistan. As in everything else this is a borrowed term (you know from where).

There were some issues that were highlighted while covering cyber cafes. Well then we will come right to the point then.

The Gender Equation

All of the cyber cafes that were covered reported severe gender imbalance (and that too in the city like Karachi, which is the most advanced of Paki City’s). The ratio for male and female café goers stands at about 70 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

This imbalance can be attributed to various factors namely societal norms where women are suppose to stay at home, lest go out to a public place where they will mingle with men.

Trekkie Traits

Most of the café regulars are students but there are pockets where professionals also access the web through these outlets. This is the case mainly in commercial areas.

A large number of people irrespective of profession use cafés to email or chat, the most that they do is download for educational purposes. They would use these establishments even more if VOIP (voice Over Internet Protocol) were allowed. But then that is quite another issue and would be discussed in the subsequent sections.

Daniel Pearle and After

The Daniel Pearle murder and later revelations that a cyber café was used to send the infamous pictures of the said journalist in captivity have put a different kind of pressure on the café owners. Now they have to be vary about their intended customers.

Most of the owners interviewed said they keep a record of customers and were doing so even before the ghastly incident. One of them namely Anwar Zaib Khan owner of Khan’s Internet World showed us a memo received from one of the countless Internet Service Providers (ISP’s). It stated among other things, “This is in continuation to a Notice received from PAKISTAN TELECOMMUNICATION AUTHORITY to all ISP’s to keep a record of all INTERNET CAFÉ’s operating in Karachi through their services…”

The memo goes on to say (about Internet Cafes), “… They should keep a proper-recorded register at their premises for logging every customer name with respective (NIC) National Identity Card Number, the time when facility was used, and they should also keep record of all the activities conducted on their premises computers for a period of fifteen days to help Intelligence Agencies for tracing in case of a crime is reported and investigated…” (Talk about big brother watching!)

Café Association

In a country like Pakistan where there is rampant unionization (read corruption) in government bodies, it was surprising to note that there was no association to provide a platform for the cyber cafes to air their grievances.

There was no consensus on the issue. One owner vociferously talked against any unionization of the business under scrutiny. He was of the opinion that unions anywhere are the same. Some like Irfan of Al-Ahmed Associates, said that it was the need of the hour and others were non-committal.

PTCL Issues

The problem faced while dealing with the government agencies brought out surprising feed back. Only one said he had problems regarding their policy not being universal. There was no help line so that users can be better informed.

There is only one way through which the Internet traffic goes and that is PTCL. Now if that path is obstructed or blocked the end users are the sufferers.

Woes regarding ISP’s or other Organizations

The problem faced as regards the ISP’s is the Internet connectivity. The main bottleneck while dealing with the ISP’s is that (according to one café owner) they refuse to accept their mistake. Also highlighted was the attitude of the ISP’s while giving lines. They in most case do not bother if the consumer will suffer as a result of the load the servers have to take.

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)

PTCL strictly prohibits the use of VOIP by private or public consumers. The agency can not keep a tab on the private consumers but the cafes are more rigorously policed.

VOIP in simple terms is Internet telephony by passing the PTCL and hence PTCL loses a lot of revenue as regards over seas calls. One café owner was blunt enough to say that, “…anything that is in the public interest is ghair qanooni in hokoomats eyes…”

Another revelation made was regarding who will control whom and we quote, “…When the governor himself has installed a software through which he can talk directly to London bypassing the PTCL, kis kis ko rokein gay…”

About the Future

Most owners foresee a bleak future as far as the profitability of cyber café is concerned. They say that what with the coming of cable Internet and abundance of cafes he business seems to be going down. One interesting comment was, “…If someone opens a cafe opposite my shop that would be the end of my profitability….”

Another aspect in this regard is the high amount of taxes and overhead costs that are proving to be the downfall of this business. The profit is minimal compared to the cost of setting up the business.

But the fact remains that the number of people going to the cyber cafes has seen a decline, when once there were 35 people on average coming, today there are 15 or 17. The business has declined there is no question about it. The lucky few have been those that have branched out into different fields like a dealer working in Clifton called SKYNET COMMUNICATIONS has an Internet café, also runs an Internet cable business and also deals in

computer hard ware and software.

DSL

They know not much about DSL but are unanimous in this that it is expensive. And only large corporations can afford it.

When a usual customer pays about Rs. 20 to Rs. 45 an hour depending on the area the café is situated in. It seems that DSL will remain a distant dream for Internet café owners who are trying to survive the economic downturn. The investment would be too large for them.

What do the Masses Say?

The users who use these cafes are thankful for little mercies. People who do not have a phone line or those that cannot afford the added expenditure of getting connected to the web are the usual customers. Also drive by usage is minimal.

In the end it is appropriate to say that the Cyber Cafes are providing a window to the world to those that cannot afford the facility at home. Another thing that needs mention is accessibility to porn sites. Only one café owner said he had installed software to deter people. Others just said we keep a look out for such behavior or do not allow such acts on their premises.

PSO: Then nothing comes cheap or Free

The introduction of much hyped ‘PSO Internet Kiosks’ early last year promising to expand the network to 600 stations of PSO.

A user had this to say about the facility, “ … the airport kiosks are offering free Internet services courtesy Pak Net but the free service is heavily advertised …what they have really done is …that they have created a special browser that has advertisements running allover…well you could say its all advertisement and less browsing area…but it is a cool local product…the Internet speed is good…but the bad part is they have disabled all other programs…the only thing that works is the browser and not even MSN…so that is really negative …cause you gotta chat too when you go online….” (We agree)

Nargis Samdani

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