PTA to get tougher on PTCL
KARACHI- The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) would issue this week a final directive to Pakistan Telecommunications Company to lift ban on internet telephony and take stern action if it continued defying the order, which it was required to put in action from January 1, 2003, sources said on March 3, 2003.
Internet service providers (ISPs) of the city were assured of this by chairman PTA who met with them during his recent visit to Karachi, sources added.
“This would be the final directive to PTCL …. The authority (PTA) would take harsh action this time if the PTCL violated it (again). We would ultimately issue show cause notice to the company,” confirmed a PTA official who was present in the meeting. He refused to make any comment on what action PTA had taken against PTCL for its violation so far, which entered third consecutive month with the start of March.
The state-owned telecoms giant is in violation of the PTA’s directives since November 2002 when the authority asked it to remove ban on internet telephony from January 1, 2003.
The PTA had put a stop early last year to internet telephony by imposing a ban on 17 websites, which facilitated calls to North America bypassing the PTCL.
PTCL officials argue that under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganisation) Act 1996, basic telephone services were the prerogative of the phone utility. The Act declares that “basic telephone services mean the provision of any telecommunications service, which consists of two-way live voice telephone service in digital form or otherwise over any fixed switched network or between base stations or switches or modes of any public mobile switched network; real-time transmission or reception of facsimile images over a public fixed switched network; international telephony service; and the lease of circuits for the provision of the services specified.”
PTCL says the company’s business from international calls has increased by 100 per cent since the ban, a claim, which the ISPs strongly reject. They say the company’s business increased due to cut in tariff, which automatically raised business volume bringing positive impact to business.
PTCL had in July and the in August 2002 brought down rates for calling abroad. For Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, the international call rate was brought down to Rs25 per minute. For some other countries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US, Canada, the UK and Russia, the rate was decreased to Rs39 per minute.
Source: The News
Date:3/4/2003
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