ISLAMABAD, Aug 13: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) here on Wednesday entered into a service level agreement (SLA) with IT concerns to provide improved internet services to its customers.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari presided over the ceremony.

Under the SLA, the PTCL is now required to provide high- quality network support data services through the Pakistan Internet Exchange (PIE). The key components of the SLA include network performance, network availability and compensation to customers if the service falls below a specific level.

Ahmad Shokaib Sahibzada, director general IT, signed the agreement on behalf of the PTCL while Wahajul Siraj represented COMSATS.

The minister said PTCL was the first telecom company in the region which had reached such an agreement.

“It is now widely accepted that any telecom and data service provision and receipt should be governed by an agreement, which is essential to define the parameters of the service, for the benefit of both the provider and the recipient,” he said.

Mr Leghari said the PTCL was improving its customer care services and a new concept of billing would be introduced soon. He said the PTCL had been sitting on the proposal for almost a decade, but now work on the process was being expedited.

He said in two or three months, a new mobile sector policy would be announced under which new investors would be encouraged to enter into the cellular sector.

In the post deregulation of telecommunication, the PTA is also expected to issue licences to new players in the next two to three months, he added.

Earlier, PTCL Chairman Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa said the SLA contained a specified level of service, support options, enforcement or penalty provisions for services not provided, a guaranteed level of system performance as related to downtime or uptime and a specified level of customer support and what software or hardware would be provided and for what fee.

He said the PTCL was committing a gradual increase in network availability for the PIE customers.

The commitment for network availability was 97 per cent till Sept 30, which would be increased to 99.8 per cent by April 1.