LAHORE: Most Long Dist­ance International (LDI) operators have not yet paid the principal overdue for the Universal Ser­vice Fund (USF) in their 20-year licence contract, which will soon expire.

Their total outstanding principal amount reportedly stands at Rs24 billion, and the Pakistan Tele­communication Authority (PTA) has asked them to settle their dues in order to renew their licences for the next 20 years.

The LDI operators’ main function is to provide international incoming and outgoing telecom call services. Most of the 10 operators’ licences will expire in July-August 2024.

The LDI operators are Worldcall, Redtone, ADG-LDI, Telecard, Dancom, Wise­comm, Circlenet, Wat­een, 4B-Gentel and Multinet.

According to sources in the telecom industry, the “defaulted” LDI operators have requested the PTA to renew their licences for another 20-year term and collect APC (access promotion charges) for the USF overdue in instalments supported by postdated cheque only without any bank guarantee.

A source in the PTA said the Ministry of Infor­mation and Technology and the PTA had formed a committee to resolve the issue of renewing the licenses of these defaulter companies.

“The PTA has communicated with the defaulted operators to pay the principal amount for their licence renewal. If not paid, the PTA can charge 2 per cent per month as late payment charges and terminate the existing licence and also can adopt legal recovery procedure including attachment of properties of the directors,” he said.

PTA spokesperson Mala­­hat Rab told Dawn that she would soon inform whatever action the authority planned to initiate in this regard.

Dawn contacted at least five operators for their comments and only ADG-LDI responded. “We are paying the principal outstanding amount for the licence renewal. It is expected that others will also clear their dues before the expiry of their license,” a spokesperson for ADG LDI said.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2024