KARACHI, April 17: Mobile phone companies are reported to have earned billions of rupees within six hours soon after the cellphone virus rumour spread across the country last week. According to market sources, the mobile companies generated record revenue.

However, subscribers suffered losses by making calls to friends to share the information of the virus, they remarked.

Most subscribers switched off their cellphones after hearing about the rumours but most of them sent record messages and called their family members, friends, relatives and loved ones to apprise them about the deadly virus, the sources said.

People involved in mobile phone business appreciated the role of the print and electronic media for clarifying the situation.

Sources in the retail mobile selling business denied any financial loss in terms of mobile phone sale.

Officials of some mobile phone companies said that the virus was just a practical joke which was absolutely baseless and had no scientific or technological proof.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), commenting on the rumour, explained that no virus was found in mobile phone networks anywhere in the country.

It said that there was no computer software virus that could affect human health and added that the computer viruses were software programmes which affected only computer software.—PPI