Just in case if you are not updated on this, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has released quarterly report for Oct-Dec 2008. Complete report can be downloaded from here. (Right Click and select “Save target as” – PDF File, 31 MB) Below is the snippet of content page.

We have discussed before, how the Government of Pakistan tried to recover their budget deficits from Telecom sector in 2008/09 budget. We had mentioned then that this is a clear misjudgment of the government to heavily rely on a single sector, and this could ultimately return results in negative manner. After almost a year now, this has been proved that added taxes didn’t turn only [...]

The contribution of telecom sector to the national exchequer increased to Rs 110 billion in the year 2007-08 on account of general sales tax, activation charges and other steps as compared to Rs 100 billion in the year 2006-07. Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Dr Muhammad Yasin stated this while addressing the 2009 Global TeleCon Pakistan conference held by Shamrock Conferences International here on Saturday. [...]

To protect the interests and rights of telecommunication consumers from spam, unsolicited, fraudulent and obnoxious communication, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has published regulation draft and has asked industry concerns to comment on it. Draft is available here for download Subject to the approval of the Authority and feedback from industry, all Operators shall set up a procedure to ensure all possible technical measures are made [...]

DG Commercial Affairs at PTA has resigned from his responsibilities for unknown reasons, told us a reliable source at PTA. Source confirmed us that Asif Inam resigned while Mr. Zeeshan, director, PTA is going to Replace him. It merits mentioning here that DG commercial affairs monitors and controls tariffs of telecom companies along with many other responsibilities. PTA’s spokesman was not available for the comment.

Long awaited 3G license is likely to be auctioned in three to four weeks, reported “The Peninsula” of Qatar, citing an interview with Hafeezur Rehman, Federal Secretary for Information Technology and Telecom. Paper further quotes that policy for launching 3G services has already been submitted to the federal cabinet, and its matter of just few weeks to auction 3G spectrum. He said despite the global [...]

Pakistan Telecom sector is booming with high intensity. A total of 235,613 million in revenue was generated by telecom industry in 2007, a figure which strongly reflected on the country’s economy: pushing the national GDP up 2% (out of the total 7% increase in 2006-2007). To further increment development in the sector, Karachi’s Expo Center will host, April 22-24, the first Pakistan telecom & IT [...]

Scammers have started adopting technology to get the best out of their fraudulent activities as well. They are now making use of call recording capabilities to trick people into their scams as well. I received a call from a Warid number, from a person claiming to be the regional manager for Warid Telecom. He informed me that I had won a Rs. 500,000 prize in [...]

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has completed targets and goals set for the first quarter (January to March) of 2009. An Authority meeting was held at PTA Headquarters to review the progress on the targets and goals set for the year 2009. The meeting was chaired by Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Member Finance Mr. S. Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, Member technical Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar and [...]

PTA will give Gold Medal to those students with outstanding Research Projects in Telecom and IT, said an advert published at PTA’s website. Students from HEC recognized universities, who have completed their final research projects can compete for 5 Gold Medals with Prize money of Rs. 50,000 Students can submit their research reports through their universities, with academia records/achievements to PTA by April 27th, 2009. [...]

PTA is planning to deploy digital PTT (Push to Talk) network in the country with 800 MHz band spectrums later this year. In this regards, PTA has released a consultation paper (paper can be downloaded from here) to ask the industry for input before actually regularizing the services. Daily Times reported a detailed story today regarding this service, citing Chairman PTA. The regulatory body will [...]

As per latest stats issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, cellular companies added total of 505,310 subscribers in March 2009. Total number of Cellular Subscribers in Pakistan reached 91,442,341, while March demonstrated growth rate of 0.5 percent compared to 0.3 percent last month. By the way, this was second month after new SIM verification system was in place. All mobile companies showed somewhat equal behavior in [...]

The Islamabad high Court (IHC) has dismissed InstaPhone’s appeal filed against the determination (decision) of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on outstanding dues of around Rs 400 million pending for the last four years. The Court has also dismissed the company’s writ petition filed against the Mobile Cellular Policy 2004 of the Federal Government, reported The Nation, citing PTA’s Press Release. As per Press Release, [...]

As per decision taken by Federal Cabinet, all clocks in Pakistan will be advanced by one hour tonight (April 15, 2009) at 12:00 midnight. Decision is taken in order to better utilize electricity by getting maximum benefits of sunlight. PTA has already posted telecom services providers to arrange this time update on their internal systems. PTA further directed telecom companies to ensure that local and [...]

In pursuance of its efforts against illegal telecom traffic, a team of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) alongwith FIA has busted an illegal international gateway exchange in a residential area of Karachi. According to details, the illegal setup was detected through the Technical Facility installed by PTA to monitor the illegal business of telecom through out the country. Upon investigation and confirmation, a successful raid was [...]