The Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) have paid Rs 6.4 million in fines to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for providing poor quality of services (QoS) to customers.
Official documents from PTA revealed that out of a total penalty of Rs 39.9 million imposed on CMOs, only 16 percent of the penalty has been paid by them to PTA. The telecommunication authority further highlighted in the documents that it issued 26 show-cause notices to CMOs for poor QoS.
CMOs have filed appeals against the rest of Rs 33.5 Million. The decisions of the aforementioned cases are still pending in the concerned courts.
PTA conducts QoS quarterly throughout Pakistan to monitor mobile services, including signal strength and quality. The authority shares the results of the survey with telecom companies for taking corrective actions.
Besides the QoS survey, PTA also has a mechanism for consumer complaints about accessing mobile services.
Recently, PTA carried out a QoS survey in 15 cities and 8 roads throughout Pakistan, including AJK and Gilgit Baltistan. During the survey, the authority checked licensed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of voice, network coverage, SMS, and mobile broadband/data via using the latest art automated QoS Monitoring & Benchmarking Tool. CMOs were positioned from 1 to 15 in mobile Network Coverage and Voice Services based on the compliance level of each KPI against the threshold defined in the respective licenses and QoS Regulations.
The results of the survey revealed that concerning broadband services, CMOs have a high compliance level. However, SMS and voice KPIs were found below the licensed threshold in Punjab, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan, and AJK.