Archive for March 13th, 2008

Telecom Consumer Protection: Now Is The Opportunity To Make A Difference

Published by Babar on March 13, 2008 under Consumer Rights, Emerging Markets Telecom, Government Regulations, Telecommunications

Concerned citizens and consumer protection groups have been writing and talking about the myriad  of issues and the lack of a legal framework for protecting telecom consumers in Pakistan. I have written many posts on this topic: see this (also at Pakistaniat) and another one here. The numerous complaints I see at the comments section of this post on Wateen are also an indication of the magnitude of the problem.

I was glad to see that Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has paid attention to the consumer’s voice. PTA has issued a draft of Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations and has asked the public to provide comments and feedback. The draft (pdf) is available here as well.

The sucess of such a regulatory move is dependenet on a few basic things. First, does the regulation address the basic issues? Second, is it enforceable and if so, is it tough enough tha telecom companies will change their behavior?

I’ll write a follow-up post on this topic. Let’s take the time to go through the brief document and discuss its contents. This window of opportunity is available till April 4th.