KARACHI, Jan 9: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has failed to monitor and take a punitive action against those mobile phone companies which have more subscribers than they can handle, resulting in congestion and, at times, a breakdown of mobile services.

This was conceded by the PTA chairman, Maj-Gen Shahzada Alam Malik, at a public forum on operation and quality of mobile phone service in Pakistan at a local hotel on Wednesday morning.

Flanked by PTA director-general Naseem Ahmed Vohra and PTA regional director Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatti, Mr Malik explained that the maximum number of subscribers that a mobile company can handle without network hiccups was dependent on the size of switch being used, type of mobile technology and other factors.

He said he was aware that more often than not mobile companies exceeded the upper limit of subscribers that they should have. For example, he added, recently Mobilink, one of the four mobile companies operating in the city, had faced serious congestion in its network.

Similarly, Ufone, run by a subsidiary of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL), had encountered some problems in its network initially.

He announced that soon a survey about the quality of mobile companies would be initiated.

He also disclosed that the telecoms regulator was considering reducing the licence fee that various cable operators, Internet service providers, mobile phone companies and others had to pay to the PTA.

Replying to a question, Mr Malik observed that the PTA was a regulatory body and not a police force. He added that there were some lacunae in the act under which the telecoms regulator had been established in 1996. “These lacunae will be removed in time.”

While the PTA chairman answered most questions, he parried some queries, particularly technical ones. For instance, when a participant of the public forum, an engineer, asked the chairman to explain the wisdom of charging universal Internet number which frequently got disconnected, the chairman said he had noted the complaint.

Similarly, another questioner wondered why local call charges were more rationalized in India than in Pakistan.

The PTA chairman defended the ban on Indian cable TV channels on the plea that they had been propagating baseless propaganda. He observed Pakistan did not need Indian news channel.

When a questioner drew the attention of the PTA chairman towards the fact that ARY Digital, which could be watched in 106 countries, were not being shown by some cable operators, Mr Malik said the telecoms regulator might include ARY Digital in those channels which a cable operator had to show.

Earlier, the regional director of the PTA in Karachi, Mushtaq Ahmed Bhatti, gave a presentation on mobile companies.