ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has said that the mobile handsets sale has not been dropped due to complicated procedures of the authority.
PTA has no role in the sales of handsets, there could be other factors such as purchasing power, already purchased phones and less appetite for new devices, official said. It is pertinent to mention here that mobile phone imports declined over 15 percent in the first quarter of the current financial year as compared to the same period of last year. According to the recent data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), total imports of mobile phone stood at $146,562 in the first quarter of current fiscal year 2016-17 against $172,860 during the same period of last financial year.
Many termed the decrease to complicated procedures imposed by PTA on the import of mobile handsets, an allegation strongly rejected by PTA.
The only requirement of the authority is that all new handsets should be type approved, official said. Pakistan has one of the lowest call rates in region. Due to tremendous growth in users, the decrease in handset import was alarming as Pakistan import mobile handsets from other countries.
