Zong Urges PTA to Act by Stopping PTCL’s ChaarJi Service For Unlawful and Unfair Practices

Zong has written a letter to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to raise the issue of license violations by PTCL for its EVO and ChaarJi services which, as per PTCL’s license terms as mentioned by Zong in the letter, are unlawful and unfair and must be discontinued.

This is not the first time that Zong has raised the issue, in fact last year soon after 3G/4G auction, telecom operators had pinged PTA to act by asking PTCL to discontinue its wireless broadband services that are in violation of single mobility rule of WLL license under which PTCL operates its EVO, Nitro and ChaarJi services.

Zong, in its letter to PTA a copy of which is available with ProPakistani, explained that PTCL operates its wireless broadband services under WLL (Wireless Local Loop) license, according to which one cell site must not handover one device/phone to another cell site while on the go, regardless the content of the data i.e. voice, SMS or data.

As one would expect, PTCL has been granted a stay from Sindh High Court on the issue

Zong said that this very attribute of handing over devices from one cell site to another cell site comes under GSM license that PTCL doesn’t have.

“PTCL is therefore unlawfully encroaching upon the ambit of the cellular mobile operators (CMOs), and has managed to escape the responsibilities and liabilities attached to mobile telecommunication providers”, said the letter.

Zong also referred the De-Regulation Policy for Telecommunication Sector 2003, a section of which says:

Section 4.1.10 of De-Regulation Policy for Telecommunication Sector 2003

LL Licenses who opt for wireless solution may provide limited mobility with-in a cell, but not beyond local call charging radius. No Inter-cell handovers and roaming to other networks will be allowed.

Zong also referred to a PTA determination that it issued back in 2005 on the very same topic:

Therefore, GoP authorized the Local-Loop operators to use Limited Mobility option through use of wireless solutions in the local loop.

However, in order to maintain a distinction between cellular and fixedline, GoP also restricted WLL operators to limit their wireless last mile solution with-in “a single site” that under no circumstances this single cell should extend its service/mobility beyond the local call charging radius.

Zong said that based on these facts, PTA is under statutory duty to protect the rights of CMPak that were awarded to it through GSM, 3G and 4G licenses.

Zong requested PTA to peruse the case in Sindh High Court, where PTCL has been granted a stay on the matter, so that the issue is disposed of according to the merit.

Unfair Practices of PTCL

Zong, in the same letter, also requested PTA to look into PTCL’s communication for promoting its ChaarJi services. Zong said that ChaarJi device with a printed 4G logo is misrepresentation that it is providing 4G services.

4G_LTE

A screen-grab of PTCL’s official Website produced by Zong in the letter to PTA

Zong said that this PTCL’s practice is directly impacting CMPak as 4G services can only be advertised only by 4G operators which PTCL isn’t.

Zong said that this misleading communication confuses consumers as they cannot comprehend the technological implications of 4G spectrum allocations and usually relate 4G to speed and downloading only.

“It is a fraudulent misrepresentation that is capable of confusing the consumer into believing that PTCL’s ChaarJi service is same as CMPak’s and one that can be substituted”, said the letter written by Zong.

Zong said that this is a clear violation of Telecom Act, Consumer Protection Regulation and Competition Laws.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


    • Ptcl wont do that. It isnt quite willing to spend even 1 thousand rupees let alone a hundred million dollars for licence! They dont spend on their infrastructure!

  • PTCL is running under Etisalat group who is Govt. Defaulter already. But due to the relations with Arabs, Govt is not able to take action against them.

    • also add, ptcl pensioner also in road for full payment of pension, but Govt not in action becasue relations with arabs.

  • You really think PTA will take “panga” with PTCL? PTCL actually owns current life line of broadband internet in Pakistan as it has laid optical fiber cables in sea and sells the bandwidth to third party companies. Taking panga with PTCL means putting your own arm in the mouth of crocodile. Till the day other companies do not install their own independent supply lines, that’s not going to happen. Zong should forget that it will win the case.

    • There are now three fiber landing stations in Pakistan. 1 is controlled by PTCL, 1 by Transworld and 1 by another company. Zong uses back end services of Transworld.

  • Apperantly looks like Zong is faking speedtest.net results some how. On 4G my zong mifi give 20mpbs on speed test but all other servers gives only 2 to 3 mbps . Video streaming and file downloading is also very bad.

    • But I’m using zong 4G device and it is simply the best, I think there would be connectivity issue in your area.

    • The test shows that you and the zong HQ is connected at 20Mbps but from zong to international link you are getting only 2 to 3 Mbps. So bottleneck is not 4G technology but zong backhaul congestion. If zong improves or adds more bandwidth to its international connectivity line then problem will be solved.
      One more thing the bottleneck can also be BTS tower backhaul.

  • Using 4g as logo and naming the device CharJi is simply deceiving for non-tech people. It is unfair,shameful act and should be treated as a crime

  • Whatever the reasons or implications of PTCL’s transgressions, I believe the license terms should be obeyed by every company/operator.

  • PTCL evo 4G is actually an LTE device and its using LTE 4G technology for communication. Zong did not know that I think. You can actually use the zong 4G sim in evo charji device. I used warid 4g, zong 4g and ufone 3g sim in charji device after unlocking it.

  • welli think zong is right in this regard because ptclhas never announced ever about 4g or 3G launch.

    Another point is that. whether in health, police or other sectors government is notorious for playing the role of a sop violator herself .

    It reminds me of famous qoute
    if the gold rusts what will iron do….


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