Senior Executives of the five main cell phone providers are meeting in Islamabad today to devise a joint strategy if the government again suspended the service causing huge financial losses to the telecom companies during the coming Eid-ul-Azha holidays industry sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
They said Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Zong and Warid have a base of 120 million subscribers across the country to provide variety of services to the customers including SMS, MMS, Internet, etc. The Cell Phone providers and the national exchequer had to bear a loss of Rs 1.5 billion on Chand Raat and Eid day due to a government directive that led them to block cellular services in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and Quetta, they pointed out
They said the government is again contemplating to shut down mobile service for some time in several parts of the country during Eid-ul-Azha and Moharram-ul-Haraam due to security concern.
Sources said that in today's meeting other stakeholders will also participate which will take stock of different hardships being faced by the cellular companies. They said that there is unrest amongst these companies owing to the government's attitude of suspending the mobile services on every festival on excuses of the security concerns.
"It not only deprives these companies of a handsome income and revenue to the government in millions of rupees, but also blocks the subscribers from exchanging their heartfelt feelings with their near and dear ones on such auspicious occasions," sources added. They said that exchange of calls and SMS carrying greeting messages on such festivals increase the traffic by 30 to 35 percent and increase manifold revenues of cell phone providers on festivals and other special occasions.
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