Spillover Signals from India Affecting Cell Phone Service

Service in parts of Lahore, Sialkot, Kasur, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur near the Indian border is being affected by the bandwidth interference from Indian territories, reported Dawn.

Citing a source at Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, dawn said that the main cause of the interference is the service of TATA Mobile and Reliance Communications of India that has the same frequency bandwidths as the ones allocated to some Pakistani cellular companies by the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB).

The PTA and FAB have carried out a joint survey on the complaints of cell phone companies in this regard. According to the survey, interference has caused a ‘calculable depreciation’ in quality of mobile telecommunication services in the areas of Punjab near the Pakistan-India border.

Internal surveys in the telecommunication industry have also revealed that there is also a ‘significant increase’ in the interference on the bandwidth used by various security forces in the country, said the Dawn.

“There is resentment among some cellular operators as they have been unable to improve the quality of service despite large investments to gain consumer goodwill,” the source said, adding that as the allocated bandwidths continued to be cluttered with interference, certain companies operating in Pakistan had lost customer confidence.

ProPakistani earlier reported that issue has been taken up by Ministry of Telecom and IT. We were further told that IT & Telecom Division drafted SOP that has been forwarded to Frequency Allocation Board for their input, after which SOP will be forwarded to PTA for implementation, very soon.

It merits mentioning here that there are relevant regulations from ITU/APT to follow in case of spill over signals.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • If Indian cellular signals are interfering with Pakistani cellular signals, then the opposite is also occurring. In fact whenever Indian media reports about spillover of Pakistani signals, they always cite the threat that the Pakistani signals might help terrorists communicate securely without danger of interception by their country’s agencies. So, by same token, the Indian signals might also be helping Indian terrorists and spies etc in the border areas.

    But not much can be done probably. If we try to jam those signals, then the jamming signals might spillover across the border as well.

  • Here’s my problem, I am in a bit of trouble, I’ve had my Apple iPhone 3G for the last 2 years and it’s been good. It’s my understanding that Apple has a new software update coming out called OS 4 and it’s supposed to be adding some new bells & whistles to the Apple iPhone. The problem is that I bought Verizon’s new HTC Incredible the HTC Incredible and it is a great phone, way better than the Apple iPhone 3Gs, BUT I’m hearing that Apple is supposed to be coming out with a completely iphone altogether, and it’s supposed to be really nice but no one has any ideas as to when and Apple isn’t saying a thing. Should I keep my HTC Incredible, that I have a month to test and return if I do not want to keep it, or should I return it, keep my current apple iphone and wait for the release of the new iPhone- tough to to choose.


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