Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 10, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Long Distance and International (LDI) operators have agreed to set up a system jointly at PTA for Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic (RITT).
This decision was taken in a meeting held at PTA Head Quarters, presided over by Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen.
It was decided that the funding of Phase 1(a) of the RITT System would be done based upon the International incoming traffic share of each LDI for the months of April, May and June, 2008.
The funding of subsequent phases would be done by calculating running average of international incoming traffic starting from April, 2008 and extending up to the month when the share is being calculated for new contract.
It was said in the meeting that Monitoring & Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic Regulations were sent to all stake-holders for their inputs. The regulations were finalized after incorporating the received comments and were approved by the all LDI operators.
The Letter of Intent (LoI) for the expansion project of technical facility to curb grey telephony would be issued by PTCL being the consortium head. The contract for the project would be signed by PTCL or jointly by all LDI operators whichever is decided amongst themselves.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 10, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Yes, I was too shocked when read this report by Ibrar Mustafa in Daily Jang. Report claims that Pakistan has 63 Million cellular users instead of 90 million claimed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and there are merely 37 Million Active Mobile users.
Ibrar Mustafa’s findings are based on a survey that was conducted by a private company in collaboration with PTA. Survey report is also supported by the fact that cellular companies were able to present data of 65 million customers to NADRA for verification till July 2008.
Most crucial statement in Jang’s report was that “PTA has approved this survey” meaning they are verifying that there are 63 million mobile phone customers in Pakistan. Report says that Dr. Yasin has been referring this particular survey report in various functions and gatherings.
Cellular Users at different points of time (as per survey)
2000-01 = 0.7 Million
2003-04 = 5 Million
2004-05 = 12.8 Million
2005-06 = 35.5 Million
2008-09 = 63 Million
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 8, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Federal Board of Revenue has directed the member Direct Taxes to start recovery of income tax from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which values Rs. 9 billion in amount, in response to what FBR had communicated PTA to pay their taxes by August 27, 2008, failing which besides imposition of penalty of u/s 183 additional taxes would also be charged at 12 percent per annum, furthermore FBR believed that tax amount will be recovered by adopting all recovery measures as warranted by Income Tax Law.
It was told by a high level official at FBR that PTA is not paying its taxes for last 10 years, and that the tax amount has reached Rs. 9 billion during this time period. The case has been re-opened after it was settled last year when PTA had paid Rs. 1 billion as an installment, but afterwards telecom authority is using delaying tactics to avoid paying taxes, added FBR sources.
When contacted FBR official, who is responsible to tackle PTA’s case, told us that telecom authority is claiming exception which is not due at all; FBR official further said that exemption from tax is not available to government authorities as it was withdrawn by virtue of overriding provision of section 54 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
FBR Officer further told that PTA has been delaying this payment for more than 10 years now. “Limit is limit; we can’t send them notices anymore. FBR may direct Telecom companies to submit their license fee directly to FBR if PTA will keep on delaying this tax amount”, concluded FBR official.
When contacted a PTA official, he refused to comment any thing on the issue, as he believed that the matter is both in High Court and Appellate Tribunals, and must not be commented until it is not decided.
Financial analysts suggest that PTA must give this tax, as all other government authorities are paying their taxes to FBR. The amount has to reach our national treasury… Either PTA pays it directly or it goes through FBR, then why not to follow the rule…?
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 4, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Businesses in Pakistan are now making themselves ready for internet; many of them have already proved their presence on internet. Similarly, Print Media organizations in Pakistan are excessively investing their time and workforce to make themselves available on internet.
Newspaper readers, specifically Urdu newspaper readers have multiple options to remain updated with happenings in conventional way. They can now read newspapers online exactly the same way as they appear in print version.
Daily Jang, Dawn, Daily Jinnah (Jinnah is currently offline due to maintenance) and Daily Express update their e-versions daily. Good thing about these papers is, that you can access back dated newspaper editions as well. You would be amazed to know that Daily Express has record of every edition published since July 22, 2006, rest of papers offer 7 days’ record.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 3, 2008 at 9:30 AM
A month ago or so Interior Ministry of Pakistan came up with a solution to curb illegal sale of SIMs by directing cellular companies to send SIMs directly to postal addresses instead of directly selling them at franchises or other outlets.
This was an extreme action that could be taken, and apparently cellular companies succeeded in not implementing the practice. But now, there comes another directive to stop selling pre-activated SIMs, and this time Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior has passed these directions to PTA to be implemented with immediate effect.
Business Recorder has reported on this and says that standing committee had a meeting with Chairman PTA, Chairman Nadra, Ministry of Information Technology and conclusively directives were passed to PTA to ensure the end of sale of pre-activated SIMs within four weeks.
So now expect deactivated SIMs from stores when you buy them, and you will have to activate SIMs by providing your verification and providing a secret code. Cellular companies are yet to reach a point to follow the practice.
So this was about this particular development that took place. Now let’s discuss current situation of illegal SIMs.
I have previously written about the illegal sale of SIMs and measures taken by the government and cellular companies to resolve the issue. But seems like we are in middle of no where… you would be wondering why I said so? Okay read on to know this
It has been told to media that cellular companies have blocked around 7.1 million unregistered and unauthorized SIM cards of different Cellular-phone Companies issued till April 31, 2008, besides thousands have been verified and registered.
Out of these 7.1 million blocked SIMs, a victim was one of my friends who had been using his SIM for almost three years. He believed that SIM was registered in his name, and there was no good reason for blocking it. Anyhow, he can get a new SIM, not a big deal, but when he called his bank to activate his credit card for shopping online, (you may know that normally credit cards are not allowed to be used online, banks activate this service on request) they asked him to call from the number that was associated with credit card , or they will not activate him the service.
He even spoke to their TL (Team Lead), and told them that his registered number has been blocked and he can not call them from that particular number, but his pleas were put over deaf ears… and the response was “Sir, this is part of our policy, and we can not help you even our bank president asks us to do so”
This is one known complexity out of many unknown, if we kept on blocking these SIMs. I windup my post here, leaving a question open… that is “Is there any Ideal Solution for the situation created other than re-registering all numbers??? “
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 29, 2008 at 11:10 AM
In a recent development to tackle the economic crisis in our country, the government has decided to impose duties on 380 items (called as luxury items). My focus point is the handset industry that has seen a flat tax imposition of Rs. 250 per handset, regardless of its price or model.
This recent increment in tax is other than the one that was imposed in budget 2008 @ Rs. 500 per mobile phone. Hence the total tax on the import of a mobile handset would be now Rs. 750.
I have discussed before about heavy taxes on Telecom services, handsets and telecom equipment and their bad impact on our cellular growth rate and the revenues that our cellular companies have been earning.
Besides, the worst thing in this flat increment is that it will hit both the rich and poor alike, though the government says that taxes are on luxury items but they need to correct themselves as mobile phone is not a luxury item anymore.
Recent increment in taxes on handset is going to badly disturb the prices of low end phones. And we may see a bad impact on the sales of handset and ultimately the cellular connections.
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 10, 2008 at 11:49 PM
“The Way of The World” by Ron Suskind has given new dimensions to the political talks in Pakistan. Ron Suskind, well-known and award winning author, has provided the “details” of intensively discussed “Deal” between Musharraf and Late Ms. Benazir Bhutto.
Content of the book has added more fuel to debates that are being conducted on coalition’s decision of Musharraf impeachment. Taped politically heated conversation between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto seem to make people to reconsider their political sympathies with them. It is notable that truth about the deal that was designed and supervised by America has been made public at a very crucial time. It can effect the on going impeachment process and political happenings in Pakistan in one way or another.
In politics, the principle of give and take and concept of deal are not forbidden trees. From autocracy to democracy, politicians have always been found indulged in preparing ground for their own political interests. Our concern, for time being, is not the deal between Musharraf and Benazir but our grave concern is how their telephone calls were first taped and then recorded material was safely and quietly handed over to concerned authorities in America.
Ron Suskind has dedicated a large part of his book to the information gathered from these taped calls. A big question arises here that how these calls were recorded in Pakistan? Given that, only Intelligence Agencies were then allowed to keep an eye on telephonic conversation of any individual of the country. (Now home ministry can tape your voice calls too).
It is ridiculous to think that ISI got these calls taped and then handed it over to America. It is not possible even if we get proof that there is an anti-Musharraf or anti-Benazir element exists within ISI.
If not ISI, then this job was done with the cooperation of the any cellular company of Pakistan. Earlier this year, we had news in Telecom sector that a Cellular company was found guilty of sending these voice tapes of President Musharraf and other mainstream leaders to CIA. Assuming that it was not ISI, then this particular cellular company should be held answer able.
If some one comes with the proof that ISI recorded those calls, may be on the advice of Musharraf to use these calls afterwords to keep Ms. Benazir Bhutto on track , it is acceptable but if it is not the case then?
External forces have always influenced internal matters of Pakistan. It is a truth that needs not to be revealed in a book. Some external forces exercise their direct influence and some go for indirect way.
My question here is, who is going to charge that cellular company? or the any other entity that gave these recorded calls to CIA? Government of Pakistan? PTA? lol damn
Furthermore, USA must be ashamed of the double standards that it has maintained. One one side they talk of the human rights of their citizen, and on other hands they are invading the privacy of our rulers?
Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 7, 2008 at 9:55 AM
CIO Pakistan Magazine has been launched officially yesterday (August 05, 2007) in Karachi. CIO is considered as the world’s largest business technology leadership magazine, which is being printed in over 35 countries globally and will now be printing locally in Pakistan to help highlight and support our local technology Industry.
Besides the launch the event also included CIO “Technology Pioneer Awards” to recognize the excellence and the achievements of the best amongst the leaders of the local technology and telecommunication industry.
The details of the CIO Pioneer Awards went as following:
Pioneers in Telecommunication: Tariq Malik, CEO Wateen and Salman Ansari, CEO SATC.
Bringing global technologies into Pakistan: Humayun Bashir, Country manager IBM Pakistan and Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan.
Pioneers In Local Industry: Khurram Hanif Kalia, President and CEO Kalsoft and Khushnood Aftab, CEO Viper Technologies
Pioneer in Contributing to IT Education in Pakistan: Samina Rizwan, Regional Director Oracle SAGE (West) and Naila Kassim, Manager, Intel World Ahead Program, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Taking Technology Global: Building Pakistan’s Image Abroad: Salim Ghauri, Chairman & CEO NetSol and Dilawar Abbas Syed, President OPEN silicon valley
Pioneer in Governance: Syed Mustafa Kamal, City Nazim, CDGK and Dr.Aamir Matin, Former MD PSEB.
In Special Awards Category :
Pioneers in innovation : Monis Rehman, Chairman & CEO Naseeb Networks.
Inspiring innovation: Umer Saif, Associate Professor, LUMS
Recognizing Special contributions to the Local Industry: Jehan Ara, President PASHA.
International incoming traffic share of each LDI for the months of April, May and June, 2008.
to make people to reconsider their political sympathies with them. It is notable that truth about the deal that was designed and supervised by America has been made public at a very crucial time. It can effect the on going impeachment process and political happenings in Pakistan in one way or another.
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