Lahore High Court (LHC) has recently awarded stay orders to Ufone and Telenor for interim period against the show-cause notices issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on poor Quality of Services (QoS), reported TelecomRecorder.
We know that PTA is hunting for operators by imposing penalties like they did with Ufone, but cellular companies are apparently fighting back. Ufone, by the way, has the shelter of another stay-order from court over Rs. 150 million fine case.
When we spoke to telecom companies, they confirmed the development.
Following is the complete report from TelecomRecorder, a new telecom blog in the town for local telecom news – run by industry experts, as per information we have got as of now.
The court’s verdict has also restrained the telecom authority to impose penalties to all five mobile phone operators in accordance with its regulatory procedures applied on them fail to comply service standards.
PTA’s legal department has authority to slap maximum fine of Rs350 million on the infringement of its rules and regulations to a single cellular phone operators through the determination enforcement order (DEO).
The regulator declared cellular telephony services substandard on technical grounds and issued show-cause notices in January 2010 to all five operators—Mobilink, Telenor, Warid, Ufone and Zong.
Its findings are based on the technical surveys it conducted last year on the Quality of Service (QoS) of cellular phone sector separately in all its regions including physical assessment of services quality by state-of-art machineries.
The LHC Rawalpindi Bench is conducting a study on technical aspects provided by PTA and cellular phone operators. It will resume its proceeding further and issue a new date of hearing as soon as it completes the evaluation of the arguments.
Technical Issues:
The myriad illegal jammers installed in banks, mosques and various other places were reported to cause frequent call-drop incidences on the networks of the different cellular phone operators in particularly areas.
Besides the cross-border interference, that is, the coincidence of Pakistanis and Indians cellular phone operators frequencies have said to be declared substandard service as per PTA’s criteria. The coincidences of operators’ frequencies with Armed forces communication system have been reportedly found by the authority in its technical survey of quality of services, which is also considered a loophole of the networks.
Cellular Phone Operators stance:
In the background interviews with the officials of different cellular phone companies, the operators’ technical department had questioned the procedures and the standards criteria of authority.
Officials of the cellular phone operators were of the view that they failed to identify the raised issues of service quality recently because operators maintained their services as per international standards.
They said the operators the call-drop is evident in high intensity areas under jammers and communication system of Armed forces, which will not be controlled by operators per se.
PTA stance:
The telecom watchdog has said that its findings are accurate on technical aspects, which have also been acknowledged by cellular phone operators in the response of raised issues. It says that it has removed all jammers installed in different areas promptly so there should be good quality of services maintained by operators on their part.
Telecom companies wont pay the Fine & wont improve the Quality also.
PTA will take back these cases soon, specially of Ufone.
I Guarantee This!!
I totally agree with you Anila, this will never happen
Yes Ufone and Mobilink are cheap quality networks of Pakistan.
Very True… :) Sadly…..
Ufone is lying…I didn’t had bad experience on Telenor but Ufone,seriously, is pathetic in North Region. PTA people are more than welcome to come and visit my home and check the UFONE quality.
Telecom companies going to improve their quality in servicies and and this case will be taken back soon by PTA.
yeh tu lootnay pay hi lagay hain her aik ko…
ache loot maar macha rakhi hai yeh hum logon ko pathar kay zamanay mei zrur lay ker jain gay… phir en key maaaa…. ahoo
bro ufone ki network aake hamari area mein check Karo Panjgur mein. Jab hawa b chalti hai to network ghayab. Zong ki b service hai magar mobile neche rako to network ghayab. Ye hai zong aur ufone ki service hmare area mein.
i’m living in rawalpindi same is he case here here ufone vvvvv pathatic in my area ‘westridge’ even aap gher se baher nikal ker b baat karo gay to gurantee nahin k saaf aawaz ho though k puray signal houn gay
Telecom Recorder is a good website, hope it will serve the industry positively.
With dirt cheap tariffs and no profitability PTA should think about turning around the competition instead it is aiming at minting money.
The quality of networks is much better than what it used to be.
Chairman pta is frustrated that mobile operators are not interested in 3G.
And why should the mobile operators be interested data market has different dynamics and the tariif structure for 3G will be cost prohibitive.
PTA should think about revenue sharing model and take the risk with operators instead of asking for up front fee.
i think this time in pakistan is the bestest culler network of telenor, what do u think all..?
ufone focus on his commercisl only not his network
In our city Panjgur Mainly Tarroffice the network of Ufone is excellent…………