According to officials of cellular companies, the initial estimates suggest that loss of revenues was around Rs. 100 million for 7 hours of service suspension in Karachi.
Officials further told ProPakistani that around 18-20 million subscribers – of all networks – were impacted due to closure of services.
Government lost around Rs. 30 million in taxes due to in-availability of mobile phone services.
Officials of cellular companies said that they were given service suspension orders in the morning without any prior notice or warning, which resulted into large-scale panic amongst the subscribers, who hadn’t planned service outage, unlike previous service suspension occasions.
20 million cellular subscribers in Karachi were suddenly sent into communication darkness on a day that had no significant religious, national, or regional activity planned. Mobile phone subscribers, who were on the go, were left with no communication means to get in touch with their family and friends in a city that is increasingly becoming dangerous for a common man.