KARACHI – Though the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has reportedly issued a draft of procedures to be utilised by Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO), the regulator has not received yet any application in this regard.
The Member Technical PTA Dr Khawar Siddiq Khokar, while speaking to Pakistan Today, said that the regulator has not received any official applications in this regard yet, however, the potential virtual operator must first have a commercial agreement with a cellular operator and this is a prerequisite stipulation.
Even before an agreement, the virtual operators must address operating expenditure requirements and if costs likely to be sustained re beyond the capacity of the company, they will not afford to start their operations in the country, he reasoned.
When asked, he acknowledged that industry is at saturation point, but stressed that there is space for virtual operating networks as they can outsource their operations but must enter into a commercial agreement with any mobile operator before coming to PTA.
To a question, he said that there is no possibility of the framework becoming politicised as whenever a foreign company ventures into the country, they must register with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).
It was also noted that the dynamics of MVNO is based upon the feasibility of the operation and if virtual operators find the equipment beyond their commercial reach in the country, they would not enter into any commercial agreement with the cellular operators.
On the other hand, market analysts believe that any virtual operator would never come into this Pakistani market even if the facility is provided free of cost, pointing out the saturation in the local industry the cellular operators are opting for the potential mergers.
Similarly, in third world countries, foreign ventures never come without political support, thus it can easily be imagined that the MVNO and 3G frameworks in the country are likely to become politicised like Turkish Airlines’ agreement with PIA, they reasoned.
Sources in PTA asserted that if there are any deals underway pertaining to MVNO and 3G, then it would be best known only to the chairman of the authority. However, apparently the PTA directed all interested MVNOs to submit their numbering plans prior to commence their service operation assuring the implementation of mandatory features in the subscribers numbers including Mobile country code (MCC), Mobile network code, (MNC), National destination code (NDC) along with geographic number as per ITU-T recommendations.
Additionally, 410 is the mobile country code for Pakistan; two-digit Mobile Network Code (MNC) = 00 to 99; two-digit National Destination Code (NDC) 03x where x = 0 to 9); and MSIN (Mobile Station Identification Number) is allotted by mobile network operator.
The authority will allocate numbering block of 5,000 numbers against the previously allocated NDC of particular mobile operator to MVNOs against each city/district/location. MVNOs shall submit numbering utilisation plan for requesting additional numbering block.
PTA directed all cellular mobile operators to reserve the pool of numbers for MVNOs and pass on this information to PTA along with the submission of fees, if applicable. MVNOs will submit advance annual number charges along with application processing fee for number allocation as per “Numbering administration and allocation regulations 2005”.
It is pertinent to mention that a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a cellular company, which can be a landline or WLL company too, that provides mobile and landline phone services but does not possess its own network. They buy traffic (huge minutes) on wholesale rate from cellular companies and then resale them with their own brand name and prices to end users, and MVNO companies are not sufficiently required to install their physical network.
