LAHORE: The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has not carried out the quality of service survey of cell phone operators since 2006.

A source in the PTA informed Dawn that such surveys or inspections were not on the priority of the authority. Though the authority had planned in the past to carry out the survey but at the end of the day it could not be materialised, he said, adding that the PTA seemed to be reluctant on this front probably due to ‘pressure’ by some operators.

In the absence of any such inspection, operators get away with complaints such as disconnection of calls and difficulty in connectivity and sending SMS. Most of the complaints the PTA receives are related to connectivity issues, poor quality of service, distortions and delayed response of help line services and excessive billing.

Subscribers have to pay the price of the authority’s apathy towards the matter.

Operators have introduced different packages charging nominal rates that often result in overburdening their networks.

The customers of an operator which entered the Pakistani telecom market in 2007 are facing problems in Punjab. ‘The mobile phone company I am using is the best in rates but the poorest in quality of service,’ Jawad Hasan, of Lahore, said. The networks of the operators collapse, especially on weekends and occasions such as Ramazan, Eid days, Basant, Valentines Day and new year.

In the competitive market, cell companies often reduce their call and SMS rates without calculating the outcome and upgrading their systems accordingly. In the light of a 2005-06 quality of service survey, the PTA fined a leading mobile phone company on this count.

Mustafa Kamal Pasha, PTA spokesman, told Dawn the quality of service survey was an ongoing process and the authority had already launched it in the NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan.