LHC disposes off Telenor’s petition about QoS against PTA

by Ahmed Rayyan

Telenor Pakistan’s writ petition against Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been disposed off by the Lahore High Court (LHC), Rawalpindi Bench recently.

The honorable court has settled the issue with the direction to the respondent of the case, telecom regulator, to provide detail technical details of the show-cause notice it issued to Telenor.

LHC in the recent hearing ordered PTA to continue its further proceedings against law subsequently furnishing reasons of the show-cause notices before it.

If the PTA findings are not satisfactory, the show-cause notices will be considered as void, the court concluded the verdict. 

The Issue of Quality of Services

Telenor Pakistan submitted a write petition against PTA on the show-cause notice it received on poor Quality of Service (QoS) in March. Later, Ufone also went into legality to challenge the same action of telecom regulator in order to avoid the heavy penalty of Rs 350 million followed by show-cause notice and other proceedings.

In June, LHC awarded stay orders to Ufone and Telenor for interim period against the show-cause notices issued by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on poor Quality of Services (QoS).

The court’s verdict also restricted the telecom authority to impose penalties to all five mobile phone operators in accordance with its regulatory procedures applied on them fail to comply service standards.

The regulator declared cellular telephony services substandard on technical grounds and issued show-cause notices in January 2010 to all five operators—Mobilink, Telenor, Warid, Ufone and Zong.

Ufone

Ufone sources confirmed that its petition is still on the bench.

Cellular Phone Operators Stance:

Officials of the cellular phone operators were of the view that they failed to identify the raised issues of service quality recently because operators maintained their services as per international standards.

They said the call-drop is evident in high intensity areas under jammers and communication system of Armed forces, which will not be controlled by operators per se.

PTA Stance:

The telecom watchdog has said that its findings are accurate on technical aspects, which have also been acknowledged by cellular phone operators in the response of raised issues. It says that it has removed all jammers installed in different areas promptly so there should be good quality of services maintained by operators on their part.

PTA Clarifies Its Position On Quality of Services

PTA said that its Quality of Service (QoS) survey has never suspended and its related activities are continued.

PTA is highly cognizant that service quality of entire telecom services across Pakistan is provided to the complete satisfaction of the consumers. This has been ensured for last so many years through continuous monitoring and surveys.

“In the recent years due to the exponential growth in the wireless sector, PTA specially focused on monitoring of service quality of cellular mobile operators”, PTA spokesman Khurram Mehran said.

He refuted the news that QoS quality had been suspended for any reasons by the authority.

“Monitoring is an ongoing activity which continues throughout the year. This can be in response to a complaint, reports or when ever pertinent, to ensure that the quality of service remains available throughout the year”, he added.