Telecom Activity in AJK and Northern Areas
Pakistan’s Northern areas are in the news as telecom competition opens up there. PTA has announced licensing of fixed line telephony (Long distance, local loop, public phones) in AJK and Northern areas which includes infrastructure and towers as well. See the official PTA notice.
Till recently Mobilink was the only major cellular phone player in that area. Then Telenor jumped in as well. Remember the Shandur Polo Festival earlier this year sponsored by Telenor? That was a good move by Telenor. Now it is being reported that CMPak will be offering services in AJK and Northern areas.
I hope telecom companies can become a regular sponsor of local events in these beautiful areas and work with NGOs to promote tourism while conserving the environment and local culture.
Tee Emm at Telecom Grid Pakistan sums it very well:
AJK and Northern Areas of Pakistan is a lucrative telecoms market due to the
historic absence of basic fixed telephone (wired) and a high remittance-rich
local population with strong connection in the United Kingdom and other
European countries.This area was served by a semi-military, semi-government telecommunication organization that goes by the name of SCO - Special Communication Organization which used to had exclusive rights of telecommunication services in the region. Of late, SCO had collaborated with various companies for WLL, GSM and Internet (DSL & Dialup) to offer these services in the region.
This blog was started by 
It all boils down to money and keeping a monopoly stranglehold on the telecoms sector in the region. And the SCO has been happily fleecing the AJK populace for a long, long time. Before the horrific and deadly 2005 earthquake you couldn’t use a mobile in Azad Kashmir. The only way to ring anywhere was through a PCO. Ringing overseas was an extremely expensive business. Ringing the UK for example cost a whopping RS 25 a minute. Now you can ring the UK on your mobile for a couple of rupees a minute.
It was only when the relief agencies complained of no telecommunications access during their rescue operation of the 2005 earthquake that the SCO had no choice but to let other mobile phone companies operate in the region.
The SCO still has a monopoly in other areas i.e. fixed line telephony and internet services. Or should I say lack of them! Recently the SCO started a DSL service. To say it’s a blatant rip off is an understatement! In the rest of Pakistan the public can enjoy affordable and quick DSL services. While in AJK we can only look and wonder at those ever so nice DSL company ads in the Pakistani daily’s. To give you an example Linkdotnet is charging RS 1200 for a 512 kbps service. The SCO are offering the same service for a staggering RS 27,999! Who on earth could afford such an outrageous, extortionate monthly tarriff!
As a result most people are on dial up. And even that’s nowhere near the 56 kbps a second. We are also not allowed to use calling cards which people in the rest of Pakistan can currently avail to. The Government should allow other DSL Operators to operate in Azad Kashmir such as Wateen Telecom, Linkdotnet, Worldcall etc. And the SCO should immediately modify their DSL tarrifs in line with other Pakistani DSL Operator tariffs. The newly appointed Government should immediately look into this matter and stop this robbery from taking place.
SCO is a useless army department. First of all military should not be running public network and secondly they should not blame their failures on the rough and difficult terrain. We all saw that when the private mobile companies were allowed in AJK after the earthquake, they established their systems in less than two months, a feat SCO could not achieve in more than 10 years.
The PTCL should be providing telecom services in AJK like rest of Pakistan. I invite everyone to visit the websites of both SCO and PTCL and compare the services both provide. There is no question about that the PTCL offers a lot more and much better value for money and more importantly something that actually works. I hope that we people of AJK get rid of this SCO soon as all it has succeeded is in isolating us from the rest of pakistan and world.
What’s recently interesting is that the snet tariff webpage is no longer accessible! This is hardly a surprise with the outrageous and sky high dsl charges they are charging in AJK! Even Bill Gates wouldn’t pay for their so called “Unlimited” dsl packages. Most people would have a heart attack If they saw their millionaires need only apply rates! Maybe the website is going through a revamp and when it’s back on line the tariffs will be in line with PTCL, Wateen, Linkdotnet and Worldcall. Somehow I doubt it! The PTA should crack down on this blatant rip off by the SCO and tell them to lower their ridiculous tariffs. I agree. The SCO is an army department and has no right to meddle in Pakistans telecomunications industry. Especially when there are countless other private companies that can do a much more effective job. I also agree that that all they have done is isolate AJK with the rest of Pakistan and the World. Also could someone tell me when the PTA bidding to offer fixed line telephony in AJK and the Northern Areas by private telecommunications companies will take place? The sooner PTCL, Wateen etc operate in Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas the better. Come on PTA. Sort out this mess! We deserve better!