KARACHI, April 25: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has warned Ufone that it will slap a Rs350 million fine on it and terminate its licence if the mobile phone company does not respond to a show-cause notice issued to it on Monday within 30 days. A press release issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority says the telecoms regulator under the section 23 of Pakistan Telecom (Re-organization) Act 1996 reserves the right to proceed ex-parte if the licensee fails to reply within 30 days.

“In pursuance of the persistent complaints by the users of cellular mobile services in Pakistan, the PTA conducted a Quality of Service survey, fourth in series, jointly with the representatives of GSM mobile phone operators including Mobilink, Ufone and Paktel.

The survey was conducted in all major cities including motorway and highways across the country from February 7 to 27, 2005 with the representatives of the licensees. Earlier M/s Mobilink was issued a show-cause notice on April 5 for providing poor quality of service to its customers, on the basis of the results of the same QoS survey.

“The survey was conducted in line with the detailed Key Performance Indicators which were mutually agreed between the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and all the mobile phone operators. The PTA had already clarified some of the problem areas to the licensees which included severe congestion, call connecting error, false messaging, frequent call drops and excessive and unjustified billing as a result of false messaging.

“The tabulated results have shown that the quality of service is far below the minimum standards given in the licence. So in order to ensure that the interests of the consumers are duly safeguarded and protected and that the licensee is providing the quality of telecom services to the users, the show-cause notice has been served to the Ufone,” says the press release.

The press release recalls that earlier Ufone was issued a show-cause notice on May 31, 2003 on the basis of poor QoS provided to the subscribers.

“At that time, however, the Authority, based on the reply received and the initiatives being taken by the licensee, took a lenient view and no action was taken against the licensee.

“The QoS surveys are conducted by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to ensure that the interests of the users of telecommunication services are duly safeguarded and protected and that the licensee is providing the telecom services while meeting the minimum standards for quality and grade of service,” says the press release.