Everything Relating to License Renewals of Telcos is Under Control: PTA

Last week we broke the story that Jazz and Telenor are approaching High Court to get clarity on their cellular licenses’ terms, that’s due for renewal on May 25th, 2019. Operators decided for this due to the fact that government hasn’t issued any policy on the matter even when only two weeks are left — after which, if licenses are not renewed — mobile services from both the operators are bound to get impacted.

In response to our news, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority approached us and said that everything is under control.

Authority, in a written communication with ProPakistani, said that Ministry of Information Technology and Telecomm (MoIT&T), PTA and other stake-holders mainly Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) are engaged in a consultative process for License Renewal Framework as per the relevant provisions of the License Conditions and Telecom Policy 2015.

PTA said that after due deliberations, GoP has formed a high-level committee to finalize the framework keeping in view the recommendations from PTA and input from CMOs.

It merits mentioning here that the status of this  particular committee (and their recommendations) is yet unknown.

Also to note that mobile phone operators are not contented with verbal commitments from PTA and this is only why they are now going to courts to seek protection of their licenses.

PTA, on the other hands, claims that the process is being handled with required urgency at all levels and will be completed soon.

It further added that all procedures related to License Renewals shall be based on established benchmarks, policy principles and market dynamics of Pakistan so that the GoP, the consumers and the CMOs continue to benefit.

PTA said that the apprehensions expressed about any service disruption or customer inconvenience due to delay in finalization of renewal process are unfounded.

“PTA is committed to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers”, it concluded.