In restraining telecom operators, with the status of significant market power (SMP), from indiscriminate tariff reductions and indulging in other practices prejudicial to this status, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has certainly acted in a manner conducive to its role as a regulatory body.
It is, however, just another matter that, on the face of it, the action may appear to be contradictory to the thrust of competition generated from big way induction of private operators in the field, leading to increasing gain for the consumers.
This has reference both to the constantly easing tariff and the access of more and more people, over a wide area of the country, to almost all that is revolutionarily modern in the world of telephony.
It goes without saying that all this would have remained an empty dream had it not been for the ongoing deregulation of this vital sector and opening it to the private sector on a widening scale.
It will be noted that this approach has led to the interplay of the market forces as discernible in the thrust of healthy competition generated among the increasing numbers of adequately resourceful operators in this too long segregated field.
There can be no denying that restrictions now imposed on the telecom operating companies can dampen the competition among them to a certain extent. However, the decision, as explained in the PTA handout on the subject, was taken after seeking comments from various stakeholders.
It will, thus, be noted that the idea behind the restrictions, revolves round the need of restraining dominant operators from abusing their position through indulgence in unhealthy competition, which may prove detrimental to the broader process of development of the telecommunication sector on modern lines.
Mention in this regard may be made also of the reminder about the obligations of the holders of SMP status.
For it has been explicitly stated that this status is granted to a telecom operator only when it has acquired a share of more than 25 percent of a particular telecom market in terms of sectoral revenues, while also taking into consideration its ability to influence market conditions, its turnover relative to the size of market, control of the means of access to customers, access to financial resources and experience in providing services and products in the respective market.
Since the SMP status has been granted so far to a few operators - the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), Special Communication Organisation (SCO) and Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd (PMCL) - evidently, on their respective criteria of eligibility, PTA's urge to guard against abuse of that status will certainly stand to reason.
Moreover, from all indications, the restrictions it has imposed on SMP status telecom companies can hardly be viewed as a blanket ban.
For according to the PTA press release, they do not appear to have been debarred, as such, from certain actions but warned against doing so without obtaining the Authority's prior approval.
Now that the telecom sector in its understandable bid for catching up with the ongoing world-wide technological revolution is in the very midst of the process of transformation on scientific lines, PTA will be seen to have all the reason to guard against indiscreet developments.
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