Pakistan Cellular Mobile Operators Pays Rs 6.4 Million as Fines to PTA

On August 1st, Pakistani CMOs payed around 6.4 million rupees in fine to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, reports indicate that the fine was charged for providing poor quality services to customers. Documents released by PTA shows that the CMOs were fined for a total of Rs 39 million, 16% out of which has been paid and court appeals have been filed to for the rest of the 33.5 million.

PTA in account of the poor services have sent around 26 show cause notices to CMOs around the country. Despite the notices, the quality is still at a decline therefore both the common man and business organizations are suffering at the hands of low quality phone services.

The CMOs in their appeal of reducing or completely finishing off the remaining Rs 35.5 million fine, are still awaiting a verdict from the court and the cases are still pending.

To check the quality of phone services inside the country, PTA conducts a quarterly Quality test throughout the country, testing signal strength and quality of different telecom companies. Once the survey is finished, the results are shared with different companies, making them aware about the places they are lacking in thus attempting to improve overall cellular operations in the country. PTA, apart from its survey also takes in consumer complains about every mobile service provider, these complaints are collected and worked upon once a particular issue gets consistent complaints.

In its recent quarterly testing, PTA recorded phone services in 15 cities and 8 roads throughout Pakistan, the areas surveyed also included Azad Jammu Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan. PTA like in all of its surveys, checked services such as voice, network coverage, SMS, and mobile broadband and mobile data using its KPI.

The survey result showed that CMOs failed to meet the KPI’s minimum compliance level in both network coverage and voice services thus forcing PTA to take strict action and send in notices.