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.
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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
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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…?
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to take conclusive measures against PTCL, in case they fail to resolve “Pakistan Package” issue with the authority and other LDI/LL companies in the country.
High level industry sources have revealed that PTA has decided to take severe and conclusive measures against PTCL that has not withdrawn Pakistan Package, despite repetitive directives from the authority.
Sources said that PTCL’s Pakistan Package had raised serious concerns for LDI/LL operators of the country, who have requested Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to play its role in detaining PTCL from continuing its free nation wide calling package, as it is causing them serious losses to their businesses. In response to which authority has directed PTCL to have meeting with LDI/LL operators to get their consent on Pakistan Package within 10 days, other wise authority will have to take decision to hold up the continuity of Pakistan Package.
On an additional note, PTCL launched other packages such as “Phone N Net” and “International Plus Packages” without the approval of the PTA, told a source. On which PTA has warned landline giant to not to repeat this practice again. It maybe recalled that all telecom operators, especially Significant Market Players (SMP) must inform the authority prior to launch of any package.
It merits mentioning here that PTA had directed PTCL to quit Pakistan Package by August 31, 2008, but those directions were put on deaf ears by PTCL administration. Telecom analysts are unable to comprehend PTA’s defensive mode against PTCL, which has been repetitively violating PTA’s directives and apparently PTCL is bluntly ruling the Telecom Sector of Pakistan without any regulations.
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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??? “
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 2, 2008 at 8:44 AM
We spoke a lot about PTA’s role in Telecom industry of Pakistan, where it took plenty of initiatives for the betterment of industry and our national economy, but on other hands, telecom companies very boldly kept on challenging the authority by not accepting its directives.
Very recent example of this disrespect is demonstrated by PTCL, when the landline company was directed to quit its “Pakistan Package” by August 31, 2008. However, it was not happened so…! (and this direction came after a reconsideration request by PTCL… hence it was second directive from authority)
To recall our memories, lets review the content of that official letter sent by PTA to PTCL Dated: July 30, 2008 – Ref: 15-18/08(CA)/PTA
Authority regret to inform PTCL that request for reconsideration of PTA’s decision (over the withdrawal of Pakistan Package) cannot be accepted to and authority’s directives dated 25th June, 2008 should be implemented in true letter spirit by PTCL. However, as PTCL has still not informed its subscribers about the withdrawal of Pakistan Package as directed by authority, company is directed to publicize the effect of abolishing Pakistan Package within 10 days of this letter and the Pakistan Package shall be withdrawn by PTCL by 31st August, 2008
There could be two good reasons that PTCL did not withdraw Packistan Package, either they took stay from court, or in other case they just didn’t bother much about these letters they receive from PTA on daily basis…! or Maybe, they asked for another reconsideration…!
I leave it upto my readers to decide the rest ….
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 30, 2008 at 6:34 AM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority will take severe action against those cellular companies that use deceptive marketing strategies to acquire consumers’ attention by falsely claimed or misleading statements and/or facts. This was communicated to all cellular mobile operators of Pakistan through an official notice sent on August 29, 2008
A high level source from a cellular company told that an official letter was sent to them from PTA which said that authority has been observing that some Cellular companies are engaged in such advertisement campaigns which are misleading for general public and are of deceptive nature in its content.
Source confirmed that PTA had already issued warnings to mobile companies, on which telcos paid very little attention and continued their practices to print / or-air such advertisements which enormously increased consumer complaints and questions by the public representatives in the Parliament.
Current notice from PTA further said that print and electronic advertisements published / aired by cellular companies do not contain the details of applicable term and conditions along with the rates or these are vertically printed in unreadable small font making it difficult for the consumers to comprehend the relevant charges as well as the terms and conditions.
Notice asked all cellular companies to make sure that such associated conditions of the advertisements that can have a significant influence on the decision making of the consumer must be disclosed. In addition, the tariff and unit of charging should be in legible font, making it convenient for a consumer to comprehend the applicable terms.
Notice said that all cellular companies are directed to ensure strict compliance with the directives given in the notice. Otherwise authority may take severe action in accordance with the provisions of the Pakistan Telecommunication Act and may conduct public hearing on this.
According to the Telecommunication Act of Pakistan, protecting consumers’ rights is a function of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and for the purpose they had been issuing several notices to cellular companies. However, authority has not issued any show-cause notice or fined any cellular company for deceptive marketing as of now.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on August 27, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is now capable of automated blocking of Internet Protocol Addresses (IPs), that carry illegal voice traffic that is termination and/or origination of voice packets in a bid to check grey traffic flowing into the country, as reported in ‘The News’ PTA says that the facility will be operational within the next few days.
Paper says that PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen announced this during a meeting with the CEOs of major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of the country.
Chairman requested all the Internet Service Providers to declare their IP addresses along-with the antecedents of their customers so that illegal telecom traffic could be monitored. It was emphasized that the operators should oversee their customers to make sure they are not involved in grey traffic termination. He sought the operators’ cooperation to stem the menace of grey telephony.
It merits mentioning here that PTA announced publicly that all (registered) call centers should provide their IP addresses to PSEB to make sure that their voice traffic is not blocked.
I am not sure if this system is capable of detecting voice packets sent by Yahoo, Skype, netmeeting etc… Hope these programmes would be allowed for home users.
Since the inception of technical facility in May 2008 at the PTA, the IP addresses found to be involved in illegal activities were being blocked manually and in the process, over 14 million minutes (worth around Rs100 million) have been saved on monthly basis. Now these would be automatically blocked if any IP, not authorized to carry voice, is found doing so. Under the current policy, only LDIs and international call centers are authorized to carry voice across national boundaries.
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International incoming traffic share of each LDI for the months of April, May and June, 2008.
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