Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is preparing a framework to allow all licensed operators including cellular phone operators to permanently initiate telecommunication services in the quake-stricken Azad Kashmir.
In this regard, the Authority is in the process of consultation with the Ministry of Information Technology and AJK government and would be able to prepare the strategy within a month, said PTA Chairman Major General Shahzada Alam Malik (Retd).
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, he said PTA had granted two months temporary permission to the licensed telecom operators to extend their services in earthquake-hit Azad Kashmir.
The Authority is considering extending this period to further three to four months in order to augment telecom services in the affected AJK, he added.
The cellular mobile operators had launched their service in these areas and set up free PCOs, which helped a lot in relief activities.
Regarding Mobile Number Portability (MNP), the Chairman said more than 50 per cent work had been completed and expressed hope that MNP would be implemented in April 2006.
The Authority, he said had also directed the concerned mobile phone operators to upgrade their switches in terms of hardware and software for implementation of MNP. All operators as well as PTCL had been requested to ensure the strategy roadmap for implementation of MNP was followed in letter and spirit, he added.
The Chairman said PTA had also made necessary preparations to host first time in Pakistan the meetings of General Assembly & Management Committee of Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT).
The 10th session of General Assembly will be held here from November 30 to December 2 while 29th session of Management Committee is scheduled here from December 5 to 8.
The PTA has chalked out a comprehensive plan for various agenda items to be discussed during these meetings. APT has administrative members - four associate and 102 affiliate members.
More than 100 delegates are expected to participate in these meetings, Shahzada Alam Malik said and added that showed the confidence of international community on the policies of Pakistan.
About WLL limited mobility issue, the Chairman said immediately after receipt of WLL licenses, the operators raised the issue of degraded Quality of Service (DoS) due to Single Cell Limited Mobility restrictions.
Keeping in view the issues raised by the operators, PTA embarked on a multi-pronged strategy by involving all essential players who could help to resolve the issue.
PTA is making elaborate efforts for the growth of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) industry in the country and WLL operators are being facilitated in expanding their services.
WLL service has great potential to grow in the country and companies should also focus on rural areas, as the rural tele- density of the country is much less as compared to the urban areas.
WLL operators have been asked to evolve a detailed strategy to spread this new facility across the country and to make it a cost-effective alternative for those areas where the fixed line telephony is not available, he said and added PTA would resolve their problems and extend its support in making their business viable.
He said PTA's Industry Development division had developed new "Simplified Class Value Added Licensing and Registration services" (CVALS and CVARS) models.
According to this regime all Value Added Licenses have been simplified into two license types ie 'Voice CVALS' and 'Data CVALS'.
Some services have been waived from being licensed and are being recommended for "Registration" only.
The geographical regions have been greatly decreased and so has been the aggregate license fee cost. The initial fee for this license on national scale is Rs 300,000 while for provincial license it is Rs 100,000.
The fee for Balochistan is 30 per cent of the other provinces, which is Rs 50,000 only. The annual license fees have also been curtailed from 1.6 per cent or higher to only 0.3 per cent. Concessions have been awarded to Not-for-Profit organisations. No Universal Service Fund (USF) and R&D fund fees are applicable to licensees of new regime.
This class value added license regime would help broadband proliferation in line with the broadband policy issued by Ministry of IT.
PTA is working on the availability of frequency band for wireless broadband technologies and has prepared the infrastructure license, which will help in overcoming infrastructure problems in Pakistan.
Answering a question, he said Pakistan was adding approximately one million cellular mobile subscribers every month and hopefully total number of mobile phone subscribers would touch 20 million Marks by December this year.
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