FREE Local call and Free Dialup Internet by PTCL

Today, PTCL has offered its customers with two blessings, one is, free local call (only fixed line to fixed line) from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM and other is Free Dialup internet for its broadband customers.. Previously PTCL had also offered free late night calls, which didn’t go for long. PTCL, as an SMP, offers all packages as limited time offer but it seems this time the late night package will prolong for a good time.

‘The Post’, citing Dr. Sadik Al-Jadir, SEVP (Commercial), has reported that this offer of seven free hours is to add value to company consumers. This long awaited free local call package would be appreciated amongst the masses.

On other hands, an advert in ‘Daily Express’ and in other print media, revealed that PTCL is going to offer Free, round the clock, dialup internet facility for its PTCL broad band customers.

The question is, “Why a broadband user will go for dialup internet? Even if it’s free… Many may disagree with me, but this offer is not going to give a good impression. Many ISPs, for instance, Micronet Broadband Limited offers its customers with free dial-up as backup, but advertising this free dialup feature through a quarter page advertisement didn’t make any sense to me. Thing that came in my mind, straight away, was that this free dialup internet is maybe due to ordinary quality of PTCL Broadband internet. I saw a news item in ‘The News’ published lately, that reported the rapid disconnections of PTCL Broadband users. Maybe, it is just an additional treat that could save some of their customers.

Another point that I focus is that PTCL is Significant Market Player (SMP), which is not supposed to offer packages without Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s approval. PTA has defined here the Regulations for revising the tariffs for LL, LDI and WLL operators.