KARACHI, Jan 13: All the four mobile companies operating in the city keep their subscribers in the dark about the billing details of prepaid packages.

In all the prepaid packages (Jazz of Mobilink, Insta-One of Instaphone, Josh and Jazaba of Ufone and Tango of Paktel), there are complaints that details of the billing are not disclosed which are otherwise made available to the users of postpaid packages.

A salesperson at a mobile dealers’ outlet in Saddar said: “The mobile companies do not provide such details as telephone numbers dialled, duration of telephone calls, etc. “Such details”, he said, “are made available to those who subscribe to the postpaid packages of mobile phones”.

He added that a subscriber could only find out the balance of his account which merely shows the remaining time period at his disposal and the number of calls received.

He said he had received complaints from subscribers who said they had reason to believe that the balance at their prepaid package accounts was erroneous. The subscribers also complained that because of the non-availability of details of bills, they could not check if their mobile numbers were being misused or not.

A senior official of a mobile company pointed out that all brochures of the packages being offered by the four mobile companies do not mention that in addition to mobile company charges, subscribers are also charged the air-time of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company and the 15 per cent central excise duty.

He added that mobile dealers have reason to believe that the mobile companies create an artificial shortage of much-sought- after prepaid packages so as to take an advantage of increased demand.

At present, Mobilink offers two prepaid packages, called Jazz Easy and Jazz Max. The charges of outgoing calls for Jazz Easy package are Rs5 per minute, outgoing SMS Rs2 per message. The charges of outgoing calls for Jazz Max are Rs3.50 per minute, outgoing SMS Rs2 per minute and daily charges Rs10.

Instaphone offers two prepaid packages called Insta-One Advantage Plus and Insta-One Popular Plus. The charges of outgoing calls for Insta-One Advantage Plus are Rs3.99 per minute between 6am and 11pm, and Rs0.99 per minute between 11pm and 6am. The daily service charges are Rs9. The charges of outgoing calls for Insta-One Popular Plus are Rs6.25 per minute between 6am and 11pm, and Rs1.99 per minute between 11pm and 6am.

Ufone offers two prepaid packages called Josh and Jazba. The charges of outgoing calls for Ufone Josh are Rs5 per minute. The charges of outgoing calls for Ufone Jazba are Rs3.5 per minute between 7.30am and 6pm, Rs3 per minute between 6pm and 7.30am. The daily access charges for Ufone Jazba are Rs10.

Paktel offers two prepaid packages called Tango Gold and Tango Silver. The charges of outgoing calls for Tango Gold are Rs4.25 per minute between 8am and 9pm, and Rs2.75 per minute between 9pm and 8am. The daily service fee is Rs8. The charges of outgoing calls for Tango Silver are Rs6.25 per minute between 8am and 9pm, and Rs3 per minute between 9pm and 8am.