KARACHI, March 13: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is considering asking all mobile telephone companies operating in the country to share their data bank with one another and compile a mobile phone directory.
Well-placed sources in the PTA headquarters in Islamabad told Dawn on Monday that as the number of mobile phone users in Karachi had become 400,000 or thereabouts — almost half the number of PTCL subscribers in the city — the telecommunications regulator maintained that it was about time the mobile companies shared information about their subscribers with one another so that a comprehensive mobile phone directory could be prepared.
“The mobile companies will be asked to furnish some basic information about their subscribers, such as their names, addresses and mobile phone numbers.”
They added that for a mobile phone directory the cellular phone companies would have to procure correct information from their subscribers which might come in handy during a criminal investigation.
Meanwhile, all mobile retailers have been obligated by the provincial government to procure a passport-sized photograph of the person applying for a connection. Now a person can obtain a mobile connection only on submitting the photocopy of his national identity card with the application form.
Police officials say that previously this condition was so lax that most criminals could procure the mobile connection without having valid documents. They point out that mobile phones are increasingly being used by terrorists, extortionists, kidnappers and criminals.
Officials working at the mobile companies confirm that they have been directed to get independent mobile retailers to follow a selling protocol which makes it binding on them to verify the addresses of the applicants so that the retailers could be held responsible if a mobile connection is found to be used in an offence for which one may be punished by law.
Sources working in the four mobile companies — PakTel, Instaphone, Mobilink and Ufone — told Dawn that so far they had not received an official letter making the submission of a passport-sized photograph by the applicant mandatory.
A retailer of mobile phones, having an outlet in Clifton, said this condition would make the job of selling mobiles very difficult. “Why make a task difficult when it can be done easily? When law-enforcement agencies fail to discharge their duties properly, they try to put a ban on technology,” he observed.
He, however, agreed that previously a large number of mobile phones had been issued by the four mobile companies in wrong names. “What happens is that a mobile retailer gets such a small share in the issuance of a mobile phone that he cannot spend a lot of time ensuring that a new subscriber furnishes right information and particulars. The moment he makes a deal, he starts thinking about another client. Mobile companies also do not pursue the cases properly. When they do not get the right information, they issue mobiles in wrong names.”
The PTA sources told Dawn that this practice had come to light when criminals and kidnappers had started using mobile phones. “Daniel Pearl’s case was the last straw. That was the reason why the telecommunications regulator decided to make it mandatory on the mobile companies to compile a directory.”
