LAHORE, June 1: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority may stop a leading cellular phone company from issuing further connections to customers from June 15. A senior officer of the PTA told Dawn on Wednesday that it was considering it owing to persistent poor quality being offered by the Mobilink.

He said the decision, if taken, would help the company improve its service which ultimately would benefit subscribers.

“The non-serious and non-cooperative attitude of the company towards directions issued by the authority has forced the latter to plan imposition of this condition,” he added.

Meanwhile, the PTA has issued a notice to the company to explain its position on June 9, during a hearing at the authority headquarters in Islamabad. A decision in this regard is likely to be taken after the hearing.

The authority had issued a show-cause notice to the Mobilink for poor quality of service on April 5, directing it to improve its service within 30 days. However, the reply it had submitted to the authority in response to the show-cause notice was not satisfactory, the PTA official said.

The authority is authorized to appoint an administrator or fine up to Rs350 million and also suspend or terminate licence of the cell company under Section 23 of the Pakistan Telecommunication Reorganization Act 1996.

Giving details of the quality of service surveys conducted by the PTA during the last couple of years, PTA officials told this reporter that the first survey was conducted in June 2002 in Quetta, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad.

They said that no fine was imposed on any cell company in the light of the survey report, however, they (companies) were only directed to improve their service.

The second one was held in Feb 2003 in all major cities and a show-cause notice was issued to the Mobilink as its service was found far below the standards given in the licence, they said.

The officials said the Mobilink had compensated its subscribers with Rs60 million on the direction of the authority.

The third survey was conducted in February this year and notices were served on the Mobilink and Ufone to improve their quality of service, they said.

They said the PTA had established a complaint cell at its headquarters and the survey was launched on subscribers’ complaints.