Monday, November 13, 2000		Article

What really happens in cyber cafes?
by Peeyush Agnihotri

ROCK pigeons delivered letters laboriously penned on a desktop of a roll-top desk. Life has changed now. A desktop refers to the one on a computer screen rather than the one that the machine rests on. Pigeons and pigeonholes of the 19th century have e-volved to become PCs and the cyber cafes, respectively, by the end of the 20th century.

On an average, every developed sector in Chandigarh has more than four cyber cafes and each cyber cafe gets nearly 100 customers a day. The rates vary from as low as Rs 30 to Rs 80 an hour. Teenagers and students comprise 70 per cent of the crowd. They do all kinds of things—e-mail, chat, games, surf and even download pornographic material. Nearly 20 per cent visit to e-mail their kids and kin abroad while 10 per cent of the visitors are professionals (doctors, businessmen etc) who use the Net extensively for serious research and study.

"Most of the surfers are in the age group of 16 to 25 years. The rush is seasonal, that is we get more customers during vacations in educational institutions," says Gurpreet Singh, System Manager, Glide Cyberspace Café, Sector 26. "Besides students and teenagers, we get businessmen. Our cafe has 19 terminals and multiple lease lines," he boasts.

"Rush increases after 5 p.m. We get a lot of medical interns from GMCH-32, who e-mail their relatives and friends, home and abroad. The clientele has increased four-folds since we started a year and a half ago," Atul from Diksha Cyber Cafe, Sector 20, says and adds that a lot of children visit his cafe to download games.

Chandigarh is the home to a lot of persons whose children are settled abroad. They frequent the cafes to mail their relatives, almost daily. "Retired persons, students from abroad, share-holders and PGI doctors are the major categories of persons who come to our outlet specifically for e-mailing. Otherwise, mostly PU students come here," says Alok Madhok from Yahoo Cyber Space. Though he stays at Panchkula, he prefers to operate from a SCO in Sector 15, Chandigarh, as the cyber cafe market is "down in Panchkula." The UT administration’s decision to allow cyber café’s to remain open till 2 a.m. did not enthuse him as "they were open till 1 a.m. in any case," though on a sly.

While those in business say the market is saturated, new entrants are still hopping on to join the bandwagon. Consequently, cyber cafes are sprouting fast. Eventually, much will depend on the quality of service they provide to subscribers.

With the DTH telecast and optical fibre cables, the Web may soon invade our drawing- rooms. Will cyber cafes wilt then? Interestingly, the DTH telecast law evoked mixed response from cafe-wallahs.

Satish Mahaidar from Dishnet feels that cyber cafes will very much remain in business. Their focus will, however, shift. "Then we might have dedicated PCs and cafes will become business transacting centres. Similarly, WAP might not affect business as they would be catering to an entirely different segment."

He feels that the move to keep the cafes open till 2 am is good. "By the time, we closed at 11 p.m., 75 per cent of our PCs used to be occupied. Now, exporters, students and those using VOIP can benefit," he adds, while rueing that Chandigarhians, in general, lack awareness regarding the power of the Web and their mouse-clicks are only limited to e-mails. "Though the penetration of cyber cafes is more in the city due to high educational level, yet the citizens do not realise on how the Net can change lives," he says.

Anuj Mahajan of Log In Cybercafe, Sector 8, feels that cabins scare the girls away. He has done away with the cabins in his cafe and says that girls feel more comfortable with the new set-up. "The DTH telecast is a distant dream and the city lacks infrastructure for the same," he says.

And how do the surfers feel? "Oh! great. We remain hooked for four hours at a stretch," says Anish and Adil from the SGGS College, Sector 26. "Ask bhaiyaji," they chime in unison, pointing towards a 20-something guy manning the main counter.

No need for witnesses. The glint in their said it all. Cyber cafes are here to stay.

 

Snip Nets Cyber cafes are abbreviated CCs in teenagers’ lingo. Making mouse-pal (like pen-pal) is a rage. CCs have made Chandigarhians IT-savvy. Sector 15 has the highest density of cyber cafes. Some shops have opened one-terminal Internet outlets to supplement their income. A few cyber cafes in the city are all cyber minus café, with no eatables. A handful of them have become guy-centric. Any unsuspecting girl who happens to come in is hooted away. Extending timings till 2 am doesn’t bother them. Even without the new regulation they were open, albeit on a sly. Boys preferred cafes with cabins. Most of the cafe-operators have connections provided by all major regional ISPs (Dishnet, Satyam and Glide). In case, one goes down, they have a back up.