Shahbaz Gill Wants PTA to Punish Bad Internet Service Providers

The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Communication, Shahbaz Gill, has urged the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to take immediate action against internet service providers (ISPs) that dispense unreliable service to consumers.

He said this in response to a tweet in which a complainant informed the PTA about how ISPs in Pakistan overcharge for poor services.

In reply, the PTA had directed the complainant to register the concern with its consumer support center. Gill then criticized the PTA and implored it to act upon this matter rather than “create [a] red tape culture”.

PTA @PTAofficialpk please don’t introduce red tape culture. Private companies offering awful service now a days. Instead of diverting/routing this complaint to an other forum, rather take action against bad service providers https://t.co/D9E13EO1ki

— Dr. Shahbaz GiLL (@SHABAZGIL) December 9, 2021

The telecom regulator countered that it had a robust complaint process in place for telecom issues. “Users are updated on their complaints till they reach a conclusion. Users are encouraged to use [an] automated complaint lodging mechanism. PTA looks into all complaints and gets them resolved”, it clarified.

 

It is stated that there is a proper mechanism to file complaints related to telecom issues. Users are updated on their complaints till they reach a conclusion. Users are encouraged to use automated complaint lodging mechanism. PTA looks into all complaints & gets them resolved.

— PTA (@PTAofficialpk) December 10, 2021

Pakistan has almost always lagged in its customer services, and the PTA had notably received 15,313 complaints from telecommunication consumers for different telecommunication operators in October 2021 alone. It had also received 770 complaints about basic telephony, of which 762 were addressed in October. Furthermore, 299 complaints were about ISPs, of which 285 have been addressed.