KARACHI, Aug 17: Hundreds of thousands of cell phone users in the country stood in long queues to lay their hands on free pre-paid connections offered by Ufone from Aug 14 to Aug 16.

At present, there are over 5.5 million cell phone users in Pakistan. A senior official of Ufone, a subsidiary of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, said free pre-paid connections were available at 25 outlets in the city.

"We are still in the process of counting the number of applications received. Our stocks were snapped up in three days, starting from Aug 14. The offer was available in nine cities of the country," he said.

The chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Shahzada Alam, told Dawn from Islamabad on phone that Ufone had given 400,000 free pre-paid connections to cell phone users on Aug 14 and Aug 15.

"Competition has forced the cell phone companies to lower their tariff and other charges. Since two new companies are likely to come into operation over the next six months, cell phone tariffs will come down further," he said.

He said the cell phone companies had realized that the cost of acquisition of subscribers would go up in the future. "They are trying to acquire as many subscribers as possible before the new companies enter the telecommunications market," he explained.

A large number of subscribers complained that they had to stand in long queues for hours to obtain connections. Kamran Razi, who returned empty-handed from a Ufone outlet, said that he had spent a couple of hours in the queue.

"It is true that pre-paid connections were offered free of charge. But the cell phone company could have made some arrangements for the subscribers who had flocked to their outlets," he said. Police and Rangers personnel stood guard outside many Ufone outlets in the city.