Recently, there has been news regarding the mobile phone operating companies increasing the call and internet rates with PTA’s consent. However, PTA has termed the news as “unfounded and factually incorrect.”
PTA denied increasing the call and internet rates
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority refutes the news regarding increasing the call and internet rates in a statement, which says that the authority only regulates tariffs of the dominant player (SMP) i.e. Jazz in the retail mobile telecommunication market of Pakistan. Whereas other non-SMP operators, such as; Telenor, Ufone, and Zong are free to set up/ revise their tariffs on the basis of their cost of doing business and commercial considerations.
The authority further clarified that Telenor and Ufone have enhanced the minimum amount of superload/ easy load from Rs. 50 to Rs. 60, and Jazz and Zong from Rs. 50 to Rs. 70 contrary to the claims of an increase from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100. Moreover, the said change has no impact on the prices of calls or data services/ packages.
While given an example of Ufone’s weekly light bucket the PTA said that the price of the aforementioned data package has been increased from Rs. 105 to Rs. 110 only rather than an increase from “Rs. 10 to Rs. 25,” PTA said that in order to protect the interest of consumers the authority remains vigilant about the rates/ tariffs being charged.
A 50 percent increase in package rates
According to shopkeepers and retailers, telecom companies are increasing the call and internet rates by 50 percent. The normal internet and data package rates have been increased from Rs. 10 to Rs. 25. As per details, the monthly call bundles have also been raised by telecom companies, the monthly bundles have been increased from Rs. 40 to Rs. 100 while the all-in-one weekly packages have been increased from Rs. 10 to Rs. 20.
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