Telenor is Blatantly Misleading 39 Million Customers in Pakistan

After launching 4G services in the country, Telenor Pakistan recently started airing its campaign on 4G services in Pakistan with pretty intriguing TVCs.

Fairly speaking, Telenor has done well with the TVCs that aim at educating the masses about internet usage and its benefits. Their advertising campaign, which runs on all sort of Pakistani TV channels, portrays how mobile internet can simplify the routine lives of Pakistanis.

All of this is good. Until we evaluate whats being said in these ads, and what is actually going on in practice.

We take a look at how Telenor has, through deceptive ads, has mislead its customers.

Update: Telenor has made the video private, and apparently all ads that were uploaded on YouTube are either removed or made private.

Update 2: Telenor Introduces New 4G Campaign with More Clarity

Let’s first look at one of their TVCs:

When you reach at 0:40 seconds, the TVC says:

Telenor 4G, Bilkul Free (Telenor 4G, Absolutely Free)

That slogan is misleading on many levels. For instance Telenor’s 4G isn’t totally free instead Telenor is offering just 100MBs of daily internet as free giveaway to 4G customers, after which subscribers will be charged as per their base price or any regular plan that they are using.

To add insult to injury, unaware customers with these 100MB bundles can’t check if their free data balance has been consumed or not, meaning that there’s no way of checking the remaining MBs from this free giveaway.

Telenor on its FAQs page said:

Question: How can subscriber check remaining internet Volume (MBs)?

Answer: Subscriber cannot check remaining internet volume as these MBs will be free on PAYG

If your phone is on data mode (using 4G services), once you exhaust this free bundle, the operator will then deduct your account balance, until it is fully exhausted.

Customers, after exhausting free 100MBs, will be charged at a hefty base rate of Rs. 12 per MB.

Not to mention, with 4G internet on, and keeping the average data consumption needs of a smartphone, it can be assumed that a user can exhaust 100 MBs in less than five minutes.

Telenor Pakistan clearly lied to its customers with a trap that could cause them to lose their entire balance in matter of just minutes.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • @Admin
    only telenor is doing this ??
    not mobilink?
    not ufone?
    not warid?

    is it so?

    or you are just paid to post a naked truth against the only rival of your payee?

    • yes, only telenor is doing this. they did this previously and they’re doing it again. Fair usage policy should be mentioned and is not. admin has not done anything wrong. they’re doing the public a service by letting them know about the amount that is being charged to them. go troll elsewhere.

      • go and see the ads of mobilink with slogans
        warid with their metabolic lies.
        then we will discuss further.

        • You are right, word “free” has always been misused and abused in our country specially by our telecom companies “all companies” not just one.
          e.g. “yeh offer hasil karien bilkul free” Rs. 5 + tax main. So how come it’s free?

          • You are right. If you are paying Rs. 3 for a day and they say “poora din free calls”, how can it be free for a day in Rs. 3?

          • Gimmick se berh kar it’s eye wash n cheating. We should get rid of it somehow. It’s illegal i guess.

          • its too damn funny and i will post the entire truth with proves if admin is going to post it for free.. wake up buddy

    • – Well the point is that if Telenor is doing this then it is wrong and should have to face consequences.

      – Yes, if others are doing so as well then Mobilink, Ufone and Warid should be penalized as well.

      – Wrong being done by many does not make a right and in no way justifies doing wrong by oneself.

      – Plus I don’t know if Mobilink, Warid or Ufone are doing the same or not or just Telenor. It might be the case that only Telenor is doing so. Will have to check.

      – You just raised a finger on the writer accusing him/her of being paid to do so. This is extremely wrong as you do not know the facts and such baseless accusations without any facts are shameful.

      Plus believe me, I am in no way related to ProPakistani but what you just said is wrong and no one should be accused or attacked without any basis or facts. If you believe that the writer is wrong then give some viable proof or facts and post it for others to see rather than hurling baseless accusations.

      Cheers

      • really?
        did i just accused the one who is not paid to do so? or shared a naked truth about propakistani??

        and well
        i meant no harm to anyone. i just criticize. and this is the way to boost your post ;)

        cheers

        • Just talked to someone at Telenor Pakistan and this is what they had to say “Nope that’s a wrong a article. Every offer or promotion has fair usage policy. Nothing is for free. All companies take the shout of free minutes of data but the truth is that also has a limit. Otherwise customers would keep using it for free and the company’s revenue would drop. Propakistani is now correcting this piece of info”.

      • mobilink waird and ufone are just giving the true rates in their ads and do not use any false slogan?
        is that what you are saying?

        • Here, the author is talking about that specific case of Free “100 4G MBs” that you can’t check the remaining ones. So, at the end your balance will exhaust because you can’t know whether you are using Free MBs or not.
          No other network did this in past. Specially I can tell about “Mobilink” because I m using it for past 4-5 years. When they launched 3G services, they gave free 3G for 3 days. The limit was “time” not MBs so the user knows when that free offer(data) ends and can easily save the credit.

          I don’t know why people don’t understand the simplest and logical things.

          • aah, the simple and logical thing is to divert to the rival sayings..
            it is a simple marketing stunt. grow up please!! u r living in a global village buddy

    • I have used UFONE, ZONG and Warid, in ZONG and Warid they warned you when your package is about to expire, or thier MBs are about to finished.

    • one of the main reason of corruption ” ma agar ker raha ho wo b tu ker raha pehla us ko pakaro”..

      • exactly.. mobilink or warid or ufone is paying them to post these of things. its crystal clear you peanut size brain!!

  • Telenor 4g coverage in karachi only defence area and non of other it just 3g service offering as per their officel website.

  • Crooked billing practices like this is why after years of being a loyal, high-value customer I switched away from Telenor.

  • Why many of you are in anger mood? :-) We are here to discuss the topic, not personal issues or to suggest someone to troll somewhere else or change your mobile to 4G enabled.

        • LOL on your mobile phone the data consumption in a day cannot be 100MB if you are browsing because of the page optimization and data optimization. 100 MB for browsing is good enough for a day for NORMAL people

          • There is nothing to laugh out loud bro. Turn on your mobile data without any internet package. You will receive a notification on opening a webpage that you have used 10MB, remaining 90MB free for the day.

  • As far as Telenor service is concerned, just took 4G ready SIM on Saturday. and i didnt see any notification of 4G / LTE on the phone. My other phone is showing LTE on ZONG.

  • Everyone does so, all networks advertise misleading context, even you propakistani who misleads dozens of reads by using fake/misleading titles!

  • Oh wow!! ProPak is so biased against Telenor that it now allows offensive posts against them :) then they complain of crooked practices

  • Set usage limit to 99MB in your Android and use 99MB daily. This is the solution for such companies who exploit their customers.

  • Funny thing in TVC when he shows an article to a book searcher in library which opens in his cell in a second. I have a doubt, showing snapshot to him :-) lolz

  • Welcome back aamir bhai. Where were you?
    Second telenor send usage alert after consumption of 90 MBs

  • Telenor is offering lowest rates with high speed and GB’s for 4G.

    in this case, telenor is good than ufone, warid mobilink etc etc..

    simple!!

  • It is the violation of Section 10 of competition act, 2010. I have reported it to Competition commission. Lets see what they do

      • Sure thing! So far received the following reply:

        “Dear Ahmad sahib,

        Thanks for the confidence in CCP. I have handed over your complaint to OFT team. They will carry out immediate technical analysis. In case of any deception we shall immediately act according to our law.We shall keep you up dated.

        Shahzad Ansar member(OFT)”

  • at 41 sec into the ad, they show a small disclaimer that its 100 MB only, and its a limited time offer.
    However, its lasts only a second :P

  • Dear ProPakistani Guys : After this telenor will ask VAS / IN team of “vendor” to make something overnight to check remaining MBs. So who will suffer ? an engineer who is working in vendor , he /she will have to work overnight to develop something to launch this service and he will not get payed by this

    An Ex-INS/VAS employ

    • haha, certainly a different way of thinking about the news :-) But this gives the impression that you have been under this overnight working, so this means that ProPK has its say and telecoms really listen to ProPK?

  • PTA must take serious action against telenor for misleading and doing fraudulent tricks to loot people

  • For to solve this problem..Every Telenor User should use Internet Speed Meter App from Play Store which records your internet use that how much MB’s or GB’s you have consumed every each day and then also generates a monthly record too..! :D :)

  • Telenor has placed a bill shock mechanism that after consuming rs:50 on default package the next 750mbs will be free till 23:59 and so on, previously it was unlimited but our awaam abused it really bad.

  • Dear Aamir Ata
    You never responded to my emails, which I sent you. Remember it was about Zong fraud but you never bother to give a shit to all that evidence and other stuff. It shows your love towards Zong, reasons best known to you! Now you are after Telenor, again reasons well known to you. Are you really a free writer and providing true picture of all these shit companies? for me its big NO. Why you did not posted that story, even after getting all the evidence?
    Does Zong loves you on monthly basis, you know well what I mean ?
    I know either you will not approve my comment or will not reply that all, as you are dead busy in other matters.
    Come on Man, don’t cheat this noble profession and your loyal readers for your own benefits.

    • Khalil bahi, we don’t write stories about individual complaints, but I am still working — for personal reference — to see if your dispute with Zong was valid or not.

  • This is the reason i like Zong. This month they have given me 66.5 GB on the subscribtion of Rs 2000 50 GB package. (51GB + 15 GB extra)


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