ISLAMABAD, July 8: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has plans to install 600,000 new telephones at a cost of Rs19 billion by December this year.

“Before we lose our monopoly, by December 2002, we would have given 600,000 new telephone connections at a cost of Rs18 to 19 billion,” said chairman of the PTCL, Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa.

“Due to competition we will be offering special discount packages to our customers,” he further stated.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday he said that the company was spending Rs2 to 2.5 billion on marketing and customer care services.

A number of local and foreign companies were expected to enter the telecom business from January 2003, therefore, we are preparing ourselves for that time, he said.

“We have also decided to induct about 60 private sector experts into the PTCL who will be given handsome salaries,” Akhtar Bajwa said.

But the immediate challenge before us, he pointed out, is to retain those clients who were giving good business to the PTCL.

Bajwa said, the PTCL has an enormous infrastructure which would be hard for any party in Pakistan to compete with.

“But our weak areas are marketing, customer service and billing which need to be drastically improved,” he said adding that human resource was another challenge before the PTCL.

Replying to a question he said a modern billing system will be ready by the end of this year.