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Cell phone companies should stop fleecing customers
Mobile telephony plays an important role in today’s information revolution by providing the “wireless & always available” link. However in our country this service comes with a bundle of problems ranging from high charges, bad voice and signal quality to dropped and clogged lines. Keeping the quality of service aside, the charges placed on the various services of mobile telephony despite the increase in the number of clients; does not allow customers to wholly benefit from the services.
It has been observed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority through a consultation paper that the mobile phone companies of Pakistan are charging excessively for their services. The paper observes that the mobile companies have been under quite lean price regulations and despite this the companies are fleecing their clients through various methods, some of which are discussed here.
Connection charges
Money minting starts the minute a person opts to buy a mobile connection. A simple pre-paid package gets charged Rs2000 just for government taxes whereas the amount that actually goes to the operators is hardly 50 per cent of this. It is ironic that though PTA has objected on the excessive billing by mobile companies, the more than 200 per cent tax being charged on mobile connections still remains a non issue.
Airtime
Airtime charges tend to be the most confusing aspect for customers and mobile companies use this to their maximum benefit. Airtime charges are always reported for the calls to phones on the operators own phone network, whereas access charges for calling to other networks are usually not reported. Many clients consider these to be the actual charges of calling to any number, whereas they get charged a few rupees extra for any call outside the network (call termination fee) plus taxes. The entire fee combined can take the charge of a single call up to nine rupees a minute.
One is unable to understand the rationale behind fixing the current airtime ceiling. Mobile operators charge up to six rupees for calls made on their own network, whereas for PTCL clients calling a mobile phone, the charges are approx Rs3.25 per minute, a fraction of which goes to the mobile company. In both cases the call is being routed through two different networks without any fundamental difference and yet the cost difference between the two is phenomenal and unjustified.
Mobile phone operators are also given a 25 per cent discount on the interconnection charges whereas this benefit is not passed to the customers.
It is ironic that the PTA has come to an agreement that the maximum ceiling on the airtime charges would remain fixed for two years (starting May 2002). Such a limit for a rapidly growing market and in the face of the upcoming de-regulation is quite absurd!
NWD access
Mobile phone operators charge their clients NWD and LLD charges for accessing the Nationwide Dialling and Local Dialling networks. These extra charges are not regulated by PTA and according to the current interconnect agreement these charges are not paid to the PTCL. Under these circumstances, the charges directly go in as additional profit to the mobile operators.
Roaming
For clients on the move, roaming charges can make owning a mobile a big nuisance. Roaming charges are implemented whenever you are more than 25km away from your home city. The basic concept is that all the calls made to you get charged as local calls for people in your home city, whereas you get charged up to six rupees a minute on all incoming calls. Calls made by you in any city are local for that city only, whereas anyone who calls you inside the city that you are currently roaming in; gets charged a long distance call to your actual home town.
This whole setup is highly exorbitant when it comes to charges. It implies that if you are using you Karachi mobile in Islamabad and someone in Islamabad calls you; he would be charged a long distance mobile call of Karachi whereas you would be charged Rs6 per minute to receive the call. All in all a combined cost of more than Rs25 per minute would incur which is way to too expensive for talking to someone within the same city!
The roaming charges levied by our mobile companies are contrary to what the International Telecommunication Union describes as roaming. According to the ITU, roaming means that cellular subscribers can use their service on networks of other operators nationally or internationally. Roaming, hence, does not apply to our local mobile operators as all of them have national presence and do not offer cross network facilities. Even as observed by the PTA, roaming is not applicable to our mobile operators and hence the charges made by them are not justifiable and extremely extravagant. A major reduction, if not elimination, of these charges is absolutely necessary to make roaming a customer-friendly option.
Security deposits
Security deposits are the reason why pre-paid connections got so popular in Pakistan. It is not that people buy mobiles for short-term usage and reclaim their security deposits later on. Mobile numbers are to be kept and hence the huge amount charged for security deposits more or less goes out as a permanent fee. Security deposits range from Rs1,500 to an unexplainable amount of Rs20,000 for international roaming. Security deposits conveniently form an added income for the mobile operators and the amount of income through interest earned by the mobile company over just this amount is imaginable. There is certainly a requirement to put a strong control on these extremely high rates of security deposits.
Other charges
SIM replacement and balance confirmation charges are stated as two other questionable amounts levied by mobile operators. Though balance confirmations cost half a rupee, SIM replacements get charged up to Rs2,000 whereas their actual cost is a few rupees only. A certain amount may be imposed to discourage the practice of losing SIMs but extreme profiteering from customer already under the plight of a lost SIM (or mobile) is open exploitation.
SMS sending charges, too, vary widely. Even on the same package plans, post-paid and pre-paid options have a difference in the charges of SMS whereas one operator has even kept it free. Hence the actual justification of SMS charges is not clear.
The helpless and ill-informed mobile phone customer becomes the scapegoat at the hands of the few mobile companies running the market in our country. Regardless of the value added service or quality of services, all operators charge more or less the same amount redressed in various packages. The customers on the other hand can do no more than fantasize about a de-regulated market that would bring relief to him. Already into 2003, such a relief too is nowhere in sight.
The PTA, in its consultation paper, for the first time, has truly realized the gravity of problems faced by the mobile users. The observations indicate a sound and reasonable judgment by the PTA and go in the justifiable favor of the public. It has been learnt that a “Determination” would soon be issued on all the discussed matters. It is expected that the PTA would give the much desired protection to the mobile phone users of Pakistan.
For newer technologies such as GPRS and WAP to get any popular in Pakistan it is incumbent that the mobile charges be brought down to a reasonable figure. Mobile communication is now an integral part of life of a large number of Pakistanis and any reduction of charges would serve to further promote its usage.
The writer
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