KARACHI, March 27: Scores of PTCL subscribers have complained of faults in their telephone lines. They said despite repeated requests the faults prevailed despite the passage of many months.

They also complained that they were receiving monthly bills and paying line rent for out of order telephone lines.

A subscriber from Lucknow Society Korangi Crossing said his telephone No 5067461 remained out of order for several days every month and was out of order since a week.

He said he had lodged complaints on PTCL’s help line 18, but the phone remained out of order.

Another subscriber of Azizabad telephone exchange said his phone No 6345444 was out of order since more than two months. Despite several visits to the PTCL offices, his line was dead.

A subscriber from North Karachi said his phone No 6970107 was out of order for the past three months and the concerned officials had not fixed it.

Residents and businessmen from Lines Area, Empress Market, and Rainbow Centre said several phones in their localities were out of order since more than four months the PTCL staff had delayed repairs saying a faulty cable needed to be replaced. A resident said almost 70 per cent of the telephones in Rainbow Centre were out of order.

Other subscribers said that their phones were rectified temporarily and they were always experiencing cross talking and noise on the lines.

They said that Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was charging the line rent every month but did not take care of its subscribers

A PTCL official when asked about the increase in the number of complaints, requesting anonymity, said the problems were increasing due to non availability of sufficient budget for maintenance, saying that under ground cables in most parts of the city were faulty.

He added, “distribution boxes (DBs) and other fixtures have rusted.” The faulty lines can not run the internet for more than 15 minutes, and subscribers have to connect repeatedly. He said proper kits for joining the under ground cables were not available.

The PTCL spokesman when contacted said, the faults were caused by ongoing development works.

He said in some areas drug addicts had taken away DBs and other fixtures. He added many of the lines were damaged in ongoing development projects by different civic agencies.

He said the cables in Lines Area and Empress Market were being replaced and all complaints would be removed soon.