June 07, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1428

LAHORE, June 6: The Pakistan Telecommunic-ation Authority will start inspecting franchises of mobile phone companies across the country from next month and those found violating PTA instructions will be sealed forthwith, it is learnt.

The PTA had learnt that in the absence of any proper (pervious) record, a number of cell phone connections were being issued on one CNIC.

PTA chairman Maj. Gen Shahzada Alam Malik (retired) has recently directed the cellular mobile operators to ensure that details about the customers acquiring (mobile) connections from the companies and of those already having them should properly be documented before issuing new connections.

A PTA official told Dawn on Wednesday that proper procedure was not being adopted with regard to acquiring the particulars of the customers intending to have a cell phone connection. He said PTA had also received a number of complaints in this regard, however it was not maintaining its complete record.

The official said the authority had already devised a mechanism to monitor the issuance of new cell phone connections. “The franchises of all mobile operators have been asked to issue new connections after having acquired the copy of the CNIC and verifying the original CNIC of a customer. A utility bill from a consumer is required to document his address for billing purposes and it must be done for post-paid connections.”

Similarly, he said that the PTA had also made the Customer Agreement Form (CAF) simple for the convenience of consumers and the franchises. The franchises and the operators would maintain proper record of the customers to ensure data accuracy, he said, adding that new connections would only be sold through authorised franchises.

Answering a question, he said a connection was issued on a CNIC copy by a franchise and its mobile operator should send the consumer data to the National Database Registration Authority for verification. Through this procedure, the data regarding connections issued on fake IDs could be detected, he said.

Quoting a former interior minister of Sindh, he said a cell phone company had issued 9,000 connections on one CNIC, adding the revelation showed that the PTA had some loopholes in its system to this practice.

To ensure the implementation of its instructions, the PTA official said the authority’s zonal offices in all provincial capitals and Rawalpindi would form teams that would inspect franchises of mobile phone companies in different parts of the country from July. “If a mobile operator does not follow PTA instructions it can be fined and proceedings can be initiated against it as per Telecom Act”, he added.