- 71 percent complaints lodged with PTA against cell phone operators
About 71 percent of the total 33,310 complaints lodged last year with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) were against cell phone operators.
Of the total complaints received last year against cell phone operators, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), LDIs, WLL, ISPs and MNP as 99 percent of them were redressed – mostly within the stipulated time period which can be described as a significant achievement for the regulator.
Since cell phone subscribers make up most of the telecom subscriber base (120 million), 71 percent of the received complaints were directed to the cell phone operators.
The regulatory authority in its latest report has revealed that 23,694 complaints received were against mobile service providers and the Mobile Number Portability (MNP). The report revealed that 43.5 percent complaints were related to misuse of cell phone services followed by MNP, which made up 20.4 percent of the complaints.
Although the uptake by cellular mobile services has profound benefits to the country, the low literacy rate and some criminal elements trouble the customers with obnoxious and unwanted calls. For this reason, the highest number of complaints was in this regard with 43.5 percent of total complaints. The illegal practices constitute 17.3 percent of the complaints while billing, Quality of Service (QoS), Value Added Service (VAS), poor customer issues were about illegal practices. Looking at the complaints received against each cellular operator, the maximum number of complaints, with 6,352, was against Mobilink since it has the highest subscriber base. Mobilink was followed by Telenor, Ufone, Warid and CMPak with 4881, 4692, 3216 and 2491 complaints respectively. The number of complaints against cellular operators is far less than the subscriber base of the companies which is a good sign for the sector.
According to the share of each operator in total complaints received by the authority, Mobilink had the highest number with 29 percent followed by Telenor with 23 percent, Ufone with 22 percent, Warid with 15 percent while CMPak had 11 percent share in the total complaints received. The PTA has successfully redressed 99 percent of total received complaints against mobile operators.
The PTCL constitutes 27 percent of the total complaints while its total subscriber base is about 3.7 million. The PTCL has virtual monopoly the in fixed line sector so the number of complaints against the company depicts the overall state of the local loop sector in Pakistan. The authority received 8,895 complaints against the PTCL in various categories.
It is worth mentioning here that the PTA has established an easy and reliable complaint management system at its headquarters so the consumers can lodge complaints via phone, fax, email, website and personal visits.
