ISLAMABAD, June 6: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday slapped a fine of Rs60 million against a leading cellular company, Mobilink, for poor quality of service, with a direction to pay the penalty by compensating its customers within 30 days.

PTA Chairman Shahzada Alim Malik while announcing the verdict after an open hearing three days ago, also directed the licensee to provide the authority a comprehensive report on the implementation of its compensation plan within seven days of this order. With a customer base of one million in the country, every customer is likely to get a compensation of Rs60 each.

In addition to this, the authority has issued show-cause notices to other mobile phone companies like Ufone, Instaphone and Paktel for unsatisfactory service, asking them to satisfy the PTA within 30 days.

The PTA also issued a warning letter on Monday to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited stating that license conditions of giving new connection within one week and rectification of faults within a day were not being adhered to, in addition to billing errors and response to complaints.

Referring to the Mobilink, the chairman while announcing the verdict had said: “That the licensee has not fully complied with the mandatory provision of its license; the licensee has fallen short of the defined quality of service (QoS) standards mentioned under the license conditions and has not fully complied with the directions issued by the authority in respect of QoS from time to time; the licensee has failed to redress the complaints against it and that the licensee has given a future network expansion plan in general, as far as the improvement in the QoS is concerned.”

The company has also been asked to ensure that over a three months period commencing on the date of this enforcement order and ending on Sept 6, it complies with the terms and condition of its license. The licensee within seven days after Sept 6, will conduct a nationwide technical survey jointly with the PTA to determine all aspects of the QoS provided by the licensee.

The Mobilink is also required to submit within three days of such surveys the results to the authority in unedited, original, electronic and print versions.

The licensee has also been asked to diligently provide to the authority all information and data requested by it from time to time.

On Feb 22, 2003, the authority issued a show-cause notice against the Mobilink for showing very poor performance, against which the company responded that certain factors had influenced the quality in certain parts of its network, which were beyond its control and had asked the authority to withdraw the notice.

The PTA chief said the authority was receiving verbal and written complaints against the licensee regarding the QoS.