Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 30, 2008 at 7:21 AM
It is reported that with the grace of Allah, dialogues between PTCL Administrations and United Workers’ Union. PTCL administration went successful and that PTCL administration has accepted almost all demands from employees’ union, which in return put their 2 weeks’ long strike over with immediate effect.
Geo TV reported late night (July 30, 2008) that dialogues between PTCL administration and PTCL Workers Union reached to a conclusive agreement. Main points of agreement are
- Strike will be over
- 35 percent increment in salary for regular employees (In effect from July 1, 2008)
- 8,000 contract employees will be promoted to regular employment
- Regular employees will get all benefits but no pension (retirement fund)
- Salary increment for contract employees will be decided by a committee of eight members (5 from Workers’ Union and 3 from PTCL administration)
A welcome news for Telecom sector and Pakistan. And we must appriciate PTCL administration for taking positive turn, though it was little late… but all is well that ends well.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 29, 2008 at 11:22 PM
Latest stats given so far by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (as per end of July 2008) and those which are advertised through media campaigns by Cellular companies say that there are 90 million SIMs in the country.
We all know that NADRA is given the responsibility to verify each SIM of Pakistan, which in opinion of many telecom analysts is not capable of doing so.
Reasons:6
- NADRA itself has only 60 millions of registered users in its database (As of July 2008)
- Cellular SIMs’ sale started way before NADRA came into existence
- First few years of NADRA were a total failure (because they have reached this 60 million registered ID card figure now, it was defiantly not so in earlier years) but SIMs were being sold even then
So there are two possibilities now
- Situation 1: Either there are not more than 60 million customers in Pakistan (or even less, due to the fact that many of NADRA ID card holders, especially women and those in far flung areas don’t own mobile phones yet)
- Situation 2: Or NADRA can not verify all SIMs
Okay, now we have reached 2 possible situation here, let’s discuss both in detail and what steps should be taken in case of both situations.
I am assuming that Cellular Companies and the regulator (PTA) are familiar with the actual situation, that is either we have only 60 million or less customers or NADRA can’t verify SIMS.
Situation 1: Pakistan has less than 60 million Customers
This is relatively a bad news for telecom sector of Pakistan, in terms of investment and the tempo that the industry has achieved. Let’s check out why Telcos keep on insisting that they have subscriber’s strength that they never bear
- To increase their stock value
- To Minimize ARPU, that’s called Average Revenue per User. (Higher ARPU is always welcomed, but in case of Pakistan, cellular companies have (maybe) tried to keep the ARPU low. It is like this, if you are earning lot of revenue but you show higher expenses (more subscribers, more operating expenses) to neutralize your revenues (low ARPU) and eventually escaping taxes
- And not an important point, but it comes into consideration while keeping in view the performance of individual managers who kept their bosses (investors) happy
Resolution of Situation 1
In case, situation 1 is true, then Pakistan Telecommunication Authority must come into act and play positively so that Cellular companies are not able to steal taxes and help our economy grow, as this is the only sector that can make some big money for our country.
In case situation 1 is true then we may expect new figures in Telco ads such as Call Rs 1 per Minute to 18 million Mobilink friends and family numbers etc.
Situation 2: NADRA is not capable of verifying SIMs
In case, situation 2 is true, then we must not wait any more and we must come up with a better and immediate solution than of what we are practicing now. Stop the current process of SIM verification from NARDA and stop wasting time.
What option we are left if Situation 2 is true?
Alas we have not many options in order to tackle situation 2, but only one that is to re-register each single SIM. There should be given a deadline of like 6 or 9 months, during which each cellular subscriber will have to re-register his/her SIM before deadline. And remaining all numbers should be blocked after this ONE DEADLINE.
I am not kidding, this was done in Bangladesh and they have managed to re-register almost all of their cellular customers. This is even better options for cellular companies to reduce their verification cost (Cellular companies used to pay Rs. 20 earlier on and now Rs. 5 for verification of each SIM)
What if both Situations are true?
Then it’s the worst situation (and there are good possibilities of this) that we have got it, we may need to cater for each situation equally and separately
Conclusion
Most of the people (from PTA, cellular companies, financial experts, and Telecom analysts) I spoke with for the preparation of this report were well aware of the fact that the current mechanism for SIM verification is not going to work.
So who is going to prove that millions of SIMs (8 million that’s what Mr. Talha claims) were really blocked? or they are the only un-registered SIMs? I have spoken to CSRs of Mobilink, Ufone and Telenor and they say they never came across any customer who said that his/her SIM was blocked. So there are good chances that cellular companies blocked already inactive numbers. We all know that cellular companies have not provided the details of 5.4 blocked SIMs (which were blocked couple of months ago).
Dr. Yaseen, our newly appointed Chairman PTA should put more pressure on Telecom companies for more transprancy.
Whatever the case is, we must debug this issue now. As situation is still not out of our hands, and we must pay proper attention in order to leave hassle free environment to our coming generations.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 28, 2008 at 4:08 AM
For Those who can’t read urdu, following is the English Translation of this letter
Dear Customer Service,
Assalam-o-alikum,
After salutations, it is stated that I have a very important issue. Please consider it. The issue is that my fiancee’s number is 0308-2*4*83*1. This number remains busy at some other number all through the night. I call my in-laws to ask about it but they say that my fiance is sleeping. But she is talking to someone else. I request you to provide me with the number at which my fiancee’s number remain busy at night. Please this is very important.
Thank you.
From,
Your customer!
This letter, originally posted at Ordinary Girl’s Blog (Thanks to her for allowing me to use this letter), clearly indicates the miseries of customer support representatives, who remain busy in solving unique, sometimes very strange and real-time created issues by their valued customers.
We have various examples of leaked audio tapes of customers making fun of CSRs who remain tied to the rules and boundries set for them despite knowing that callers are making fun of them. Cellular companies had to charge help line call, but this too didn’t effect the work load for these CSRs.
This post is actually dedicated to all CSRs of all cellular companies, and other call centers, who work really hard to ease the mobile phone experience of customers and who remain there round the clock 24×7 for our help.
And request to cellular customers to not to disrupt support guys if not required, and don’t ask them things that they can’t do.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 24, 2008 at 1:28 PM
There are multiple examples in Pakistan, where unknown people intercept cellular voice and SMS communication of mobile users; afterwards they blackmail them and earn some bucks. I have received mails from at least 4 of my readers who have reported such instances happening with them. One of such mail was also made public, whose number was being intercepted by someone and the issue is still unresolved.
Earlier on, we thought that this can be some hacker who had compromised the security of GSM network, however latter it was discovered there hacking of GSM network is not possible. like a reader left his comment, which reads, “Mobile hacking is not possible in a GSM network…..Only operator can listen user’s calls or if someone have duplicate SIM with same IMEI, there are some security algorithms and no one can break it”
Now, here is the situation, victim mobile users raised their voice that cellular companies’ staffers listen and record their voice and data communication and then they blackmail them.
A very reliable source, requesting anonymity has told that the issue reached and it was discussed in Federal Cabinet that cellular companies’ staffers are bothering youngsters and threatening them to either give them money or they will provide their parents with their voice tapes.
Now a high member from Ministry of IT and Telecom has written a letter to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to seriously look into matter and make sure to stop such practices and culprits involved should be penalized.
On other hands we know that in the name of security, there are multiple authorities, which can track our very personal voice calls. Issue must be addressed very clearing defining the regulations so that un-authorized may not reach our voice conversations in any way. (We are in Pakistan, so I am not raising any voice against Interior Ministry of Intelligence Agencies, however their act of listening to anyone’s voice conversation over phone is against very basic human rights)
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 22, 2008 at 4:34 PM
PTCL employees are on strike for almost a week now. They are protesting against Unified Pay Scale introduced by PTCL administration, despite of assurance through a notification from SEVP Finance, that administration is taking back Unified Pay Scale and agreeing on all other demands asked by PTCL employees.
However, employees carry on protests as they think this is a total drama instead of any serious attitude from PTCL administration. PTCL’s spokesman’s statment reflected this as well, as he showed ignorance over any such notification by SEVP Finance, reported Geo TV.
On other hands, all internet service providers in the country are struck in middle of no where. They are facing extensive pressure from their customers for new DSL installations and infected line rectifications.
Even faulty PTCL phone lines are lying dead and no one knows when they will be restored.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 22, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Interior Ministry Comes up With Remedy of Pakistani Mobile Users
Federal Government of Pakistan (Interior Ministry) thinks that PTA and cellular companies operating here in the Pakistan have badly failed to cap illegal sale of mobile SIMs. Consequently, it has decided that no one can purchase and get SIM in real time from franchises; instead, if a user needs to buy a SIM, he must fill all required documents, with NIC copy and other prerequisites. Latter on, cellular company will send him SIM at his postal address.
Daily times has reported in its July 22, 2008 edition as following
The federal government has decided that Mobile SIMs will now be posted to the addresses given by applicants and not handed over to the purchaser on the spot. An Interior Ministry spokesman told reporters that any violation of this procedure shall be punishable under the relevant laws and necessary instructions had been issued to Chairman PTA in this regard.
This is a very sharp step taken by government. Maybe it was only solution left with the government; given that PTA and cellular companies were not showing good results regarding the sale of illegal SIMs.
I think that this method may delay the process of SIM activation and may result into problems for users, but the legislation may lead us to a safer Pakistan. We must remember that this situation is reversal of what we were 8/10 years ago when we used to wait for a PTCL line for months. So these delays are due to problems created by ourselve.
On other hands, sales of cellular connections may further go down, which are already witnessing a decline in recent months. Even bangladesh defeated us in Cellular SIM’s sale in June 2008. It merits mentioning that Pakistan added
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 22, 2008 at 12:15 AM
Today, various newspapers have reported that messages sent through mobile phones in order to unrest stock markets is now termed as cyber crime, and criminals will be treated as per Cyber Crime Law. Daily Times reports in its July 21, 2008 edition as following
Manipulation of the stock exchange market through short messaging services (SMS) from mobile phones will be treated as a cyber crime, the federal government decided on Sunday.
Personally, I don’t see any reality in such a so called cyber crime law that was implemented in December 2007. (Interestingly whole Pakistan was surprised in January 2008, when it was told that cyber crime law was enforced in December 2007, without any public announcment).
I wonder how this SMS crime will be tracked in our country, with no system available to cap and/or monitor the messages. And specifically in case of stock market disruptions, the message is forwarded and then re-forwarded to multiple mobile users, making it almost impossible to reach the actual originator of that text message.
Daily Times in the same report writes..
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) will deal with creating disinformation about the stock markets through SMS. The government has also directed the agency to take immediate notice of such cases in future.
While on other hands, Mir Zubair Mehmood, Director FIA, while speaking with Geo TV (in its programme Tezi Mani, aired at 5:20 PM (Pakistan time), July 21, 2008), said that no one has approached him in this regard, neither he has received any notification regarding this law. While replying to a question, he said that yes we are confident that we will bring the culprit into court once we recieve any orders from government. (Allah knows how will they do that)
I don’t know who is making these policies and if telecom companies are consulted while making such laws or not. I have said in my previous posts that a law that can’t be implemented is like a book in shelves that you never read.
By the way, this news reminded us that there exists a cyber crime law in our country too!
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on July 16, 2008 at 2:08 PM
TA has issued an initial draft called “Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2008”, to populate regulations for protecting consumers rights. PTA says that these regulations were first made public in March 2008 for industry’s comments; and now it has revised the draft upon the feedback it got.
PTA has been seeking for further input from Telecom companies, consumers and telecom analysts to finalize these regulations to ensure that telecom consumer’s rights are well protected.
It is very good to see that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has come up with much awaited regulations to introduce code of commercial and business activities for telecom companies. I have written before on how telecom companies had been looting consumers for either misguiding or not properly educating them about their products and services.
You can download the draft Here. (Right Click and save target as; PDF File Size: 106K)
And if you find anything that is not appropriate or you want to add any thing in this draft, send your feedback at: law@pta.gov.pk
I have selected only couple of points from the draft, my comments are in red font
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