Regulator Reminds Operators of Obligations

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has reminded all cellular mobile operators to maintain proper record of mobile phone users and follow all formal requirements when connecting new customers to their networks. The PTA says that it has issued this directive in the wake of some complaints on irregular issuance of cellular connections.

PTA has also formulated a detailed procedure for issuance of new cell phone connections and already circulated to mobile phone operators for their strict compliance. The Authority has directed mobile operators to follow this procedure to avoid any complications and failure to comply with these instructions may lead to initiation of legal proceedings under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organized) Act.

The Authority has observed that while issuing new mobile connections proper verification and documentation of antecedents is not being done and operators have been asked to follow Authority's directions in this regard.

PTA has also directed all operators to publish an advertisement in newspapers to get the issued connections regularized through ensuring correctness of antecedents of the subscribers.

It has further directed to furnish a progress report by 15 June 2006. It may be added that PTA has taken this action on complaints of issuance of new connections on unverifiable or incomplete documents.

Posted to the site on 29th May 2006