ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has 38,741 complaints from telecom consumers against different telecom operators and resolved 99.6 percent of them it received during one year.
These complaints were received against cellular operators, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), Long Distance International (LDIs), Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators and Internet Service providers (ISPs).In its annual report, PTA on Saturday said Cellular Mobile subscribers constitute major part of overall telecom subscriber base, therefore, maximum number of complaints belong to this segment. Total number of complaints against Mobile Operators during the period stood at 22,866.
The Authority said unprecedented success of telecom services in the country has resulted into millions of subscribers using various services based on advanced technologies offered by a number of operators. More than 86 % of the population has access to telecom services now which is ample justification of the fact that telecom services are a major part of daily life of a common man.
Consequently, the number of service related complaints by telecom users also increased over time. In order to make sure that telecom consumers get the best possible customer PTA established a special Department called Consumer Protection Directorate which looks after consumer complaints, submits summarized complaints information to the Authority and also liaises with operators for better handling of consumer complaints.
Dedicated Online Complaint Management System has also been installed at PTA which collects complaints from the telecom consumers through PTA’s website, landline, fax, email and letters. Complainant is kept informed through auto generated email notification to the email address of the complainant taken at the time of lodging of complaint through PTA’s website.
PTA has a prescribed time limit of 15 days for redressal of received complaints. The trend of complaints is also taken into account.
The structure of telecom sector of Pakistan is dominated by the cellular mobile services and Fixed Line Services. In the same way, more than 99% of the complaints are related to cellular mobile and fixed line segment i.e. PTCL.
In the cellular mobile segment, the misuse of service and illegal practice are common types of complaints that are received by the Authority whereas faulty telephone lines and billing issues are the major areas of concern for PTCL.
