President Internet Service Providers Association (ISPAK), Ansar-ul-Haq has said distortions in the PTCL copper network resulted in the underperformance of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as the efficiency of service primarily depended upon these lines.
"An internet user usually gets the connectivity through the PTCL's telephone line and if there are distortions in it, which is mostly the case, the service will not perform well," he said commenting on the survey conducted by Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) on the performance of (Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Talking to Business Recorder, he said that performance surveys were a healthy practice but the quality parameters and benchmarks should be well defined and well communicated. "There have been no quality benchmarks since last 10 years to assess the performance of the ISPs," he added.
It may be mentioned here that the PTA has released a survey report this Monday according to which only 45 percent of the ISPs were performing up to the mark. The PTA report added the underperforming operators would be issued show-cause notices.
Ansar said that the ISPs or the IASPAK was not communicated about such a survey, which was carried on in secrecy while sitting at the PTCL exchanges.
"A survey being carried out at the telephone exchange can not be authentic because 80 percent of the distortions in the internet service were due to the inefficiency of the PTCL copper network," he observed.
Meanwhile, Secretary IASPAK, Waqar Ahmed Abidi has said that the PTCL had always been a discouraging element regarding internet business in Pakistan.
He praised the PTA for conducting such a survey, but he added that PTCL's service should be improved first.
"If the PTCL provides better service, the internet service providers will perform well," Abidi remarked.
Responding to a question that the PTA in its survey report pointed out that 55 percent of the ISPs were not up to the mark and 20 percent much below standard, he said that the ISPs were not making enough money that was hindering continuous improvement.
"The business requires heavy investment, as the equipment needed is quite costly besides, due to the high-handedness of the PTCL many ISPs have shut down their operations," he observed.
"But now the situation is improving, as the PTA has taken a commendable step of reducing bandwidth prices, which would help the ISPs in providing better and speedy service to the consumers," he maintained. Abidi said that IASPAK members were not afraid of any survey but the parameters should be well defined and survey should not be conducted in secrecy, he said and claimed that if the PTA conducted next survey, it would be give much better results.
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