November 25, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Nov 24: Mobile operators have suspended the operations of 40 franchisees and imposed penalties on them worth Rs9.88 million for issuing the unauthorised SIMs.

The penalties, which came over time, were in response to directions and warnings by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in order to check and stop sales of unauthorized connections.

Similarly, sale commission of four franchises was forfeited, stock of 26 franchisees suspended and warning letters were issued to all the franchises. A total of 1,020,874 unverified SIMs/connections have been blocked so far.

A semi-automated system has been adopted by all mobile companies for swift verification of new subscribers’ details.

A spokesman for the authority said on Saturday that mobile companies had completed verification of approximately 85 percent data of their subscribers through Nadra. Actions taken by the PTA are meant to ensure the sale of new SIMs with proper documentation in all major cities across the country, he added.

He said non-verification of mobile subscribers’ details was being viewed with great concern by the authority. To eradicate the problems caused due to customers’ fake particulars, the PTA has issued a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) directing mobile operators to streamline the new connections’ sale and verify the old records through Nadra, the spokesman said.

To check the sale of new mobile connections, the PTA had carried out three confidential surveys of the franchisees and retailers of mobile operators. As a result of these surveys, franchisees that were found involved in illegal sale of the SIMs were stopped from operating. Furthermore, the operators had also been asked to ensure that the connections were not sold by unregistered retailers, the spokesman said.

He said the authority would continue conducting survey of the franchisees and legal action be taken against those violating the directions in this regard.