KARACHI, Nov 5: Out of the 34 internet service providers operating in the city, the survival of 19 ISPs, dealing with about 200,000 subscribers, has been endangered owing to lack of coordination between the two departments of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Dawn learnt here on Wednesday.
The PTCL senior accounts officer of the international telecommunication department, based in Islamabad, did not notify the Karachi-based value-added services department, authorized to issue demand notes to new ISPs in the city, that monthly charges for digital cross connect (DXX) network for ISPs using shared bandwidth, ranging between 192 kilobits per second and two megabits per second, are not Rs55,000 as announced by the minister for science and technology, Prof Attaur Rehman.
At a press conference in Islamabad on April 22, 2000, Prof Attaur Rehman had announced that “the DXX charges, which were previously Rs219,000 per month, will now be charged at a flat rate of Rs55,000 per month for data rates of 192 kilobits per second and above”.
He added that the new tariff would come into effect from May 1, 2000.
The Islamabad-based senior accounts officer of the international telecommunication department did not inform the Karachi-based value-added services department that the DXX charges were not applicable to the ISPs employing shared bandwidth. As a result, the value-added services department not only continued to issue new demand notes at the previous rates but also did not intimate the ISPs using shared bandwidth that DXX charges were not Rs55,000 per month.
The senior accounts officer of the international telecommunication department made matters worse by not issuing a bill to the 19 ISPs using shared bandwidth for the past 18 months.
“Our horror knew no bounds when we learnt on receipt of a bill for DXX charges after a gap of 18 months that the PTCL has charged us at the rate of Rs219,000 per month, as well as Rs15,000 additional charges and 15 per cent central excise duty,” the chief executive of Gem Internet Services, Ateeq M. Khan, told Dawn.
He observed that apart from keeping the ISPs using shared bandwidth in the dark about the exact value of the monthly DXX charges, the PTCL had not issued a bill for the past 18 months. As a result, he added, they would have to pay exorbitant outstanding dues for no fault of theirs. He said that the official website of the phone utility, www.ptcl.com.pk, was also silent on the increase in the DXX charges for the ISPs using shared bandwidth.
When this reporter rang up the Islamabad-based senior accounts officer of the international telecommunication department on Wednesday, he was not available for comments.
Insiders said the following 19 ISPs had been affected by the PTCL’s lack of coordination: Compunet On Line, Crestar International, Cubexs, Dancom Pakistan, Gem Internet Services, Netsol Connect, Gerry’s Information Tech, Humdard University, NED University of Engineering, Net 2000 Communication, PICL Global Net, Robonet Interaction, Sattech, South Asia Media Wise, Super Net PDS, Web Net Comm Service, Pak Free, World Tel Meca (on I.I. Chundrigar Road) and World Tel Meca (Dr Ziauddin Road).
