GUJAR KHAN, March 2: The residents of Gujar Khan have appealed to the PTCL authorities to allow the internet service providers (ISPs) to continue operating in the Tehsil.

In an agreement with the PTCL, the internet service of Comsats was franchised to a group of local investors. Its service was launched on experimental basis last December while other ISPs also continued to operate in the area. However, access to the service of other ISPs was blocked on February 5 and only Comsats was permitted to continue its services.

The ISP has, according to the announcement of the Rawalpindi Telecom Region (RTR) on January 29, established the point of presence (POP) in the city.

Talking to Dawn, Sultan Mahmood Chohan, the president of Internet Users Association (IUA), said Comsats service frequently got disconnected. He said it had not been able to provide service of even a reasonable quality since it started operating in the city about two months ago. As a result, the internet clubs in the city were suffering a lot, he added.

Mr Chohan said Comsats had not installed any server in the city, and had just got a downlink from its office in Islamabad.

The IUA general-secretary, Chaudhry Farzand Ali, said even before the franchisee got monopoly of the internet service here, the charges of the monthly package were doubled from Rs1,500. There is a strong possibility that charges of the other package, dial-up package, will also be increased and the quality of service will decline as more people start using the internet.

When contacted, the local Comsats management said they had to increase the monthly package charges to Rs3,000, as they had to meet their expenditures.