PTA receives 3,886 complaints

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received 3,886 complaints against telecom services providers, including PTCL, Mobile, WLL and value added services in the last three months of the year 2007. PTA has devised a mechanism to receive consumer complaints for various telecom services and their resolution on priority.
For this purpose, the PTA has installed a toll free number so that the consumers could register their complaints free of cost. The review tells that complaints against the operators have declined by almost 17 per cent during the current quarter of the year as compared to the last year when the PTA received 4,653 complaints.
Among the services, maximum complaints were received against the PTCL, which still holds monopoly over fixed-line services in Pakistan and cellular mobile sector comes at second place with 23 per cent of the total complaints.
The PTA received 2,886 complaints against the PTCL whereas the number of complaints for July-September 2007 quarter was 5,784. Similarly, 889 complaints were registered against the cellular companies as compared to 1,317 complaints during the last quarter.
The complaints submitted against the cellular mobile sector reflect dissatisfaction over the services provided by mobile phone operators. Complaints related to quality of services all the mobile phone companies increased as compared to the previous quarter.
The main problem identified is the congestion and connectivity in the networks of mobile phone companies. In addition, complaints related to obnoxious calls and spam AMS continue unabated. In this regard, the companies were asked to warn the subscribers and block the numbers as most of these calls were from unregistered sims.
On the other hand, complaints against the fixed-line decreased by 17 per cent as compared to the last quarter. Most of the complaints were related to billing and new telephone connections. The main concern highlighted by a majority of consumers was about staff demeanor and poor complaint handling. The review report also highlighted that peer performance of Internet service providers remained on the rise that include overcharging by the card payphones and refund of security.