Competition Commission of Pakistan Vs. Mobilink
As reported in the media, The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has said that Mobilink is involved in an unreasonably restrictive trade practice by not allowing its blackberry subscribers to other service providers. Before reading this news I did not know that there was a government department called Competition Commission of Pakistan … see their website. The issue here is that whether Mobilink can lock subscribers by providing them a subsidized Blackberry handset. It would be interesting to see Mobilink’s response and how this gets propagated to other mobile network operators such as Zong. This situation is very common in USA and it takes quite an effort to get a phone unlocked. By the way, isn’t PTA supposed to be involved in this as well?
The CCP has passed an order on the show-cause notice, issued by the MCA to Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (Mobilink GSM) for carrying on unreasonable restrictive trade practices. The order said that currently the Mobilink GSM blackberry customer did not have any option to switch over to another service operator whether the SIM enabled or not.
Most of the customers were not aware about the SIM locking restriction. Similarly, no procedure was in place whereby the customer could seek unlocking of the SIM from Mobilink GSM, if it desired for the purposes of switching over to another network/service provider, said the order.
According to the order, the tie-in arrangement of bundling the handset, Mobilink’s telephone service and the blackberry service products through SIM locking has the effect of unreasonably preventing, restraining or otherwise lessening competition. In the Commission’s considered view, locking the SIM card in the handset and preventing its replacement restricts customers from changing their service provider. With no procedures in place for unlocking, it effectively deterred the consumer choice and mobility, it said.
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You’ve got to hand it to them though- that’s just brilliant!
Please see my comment at http://lirneasia.net/2008/08/regulatory-competition-in-pakistan-likely-to-increase-regulatory-risk/.
The response to the specific case is very simple: give Blackberries at full price, unlocked. Less penetration; but someone’s theory will be satisfied.
When we see the facts on ground, i am not hopeful when it comes to laws and their implementation in Pakistan. Even PTA is unable to cap certain deeds of telcos. In such a scenario, what can we expect from CCP.
News remained in circle for couple of days, but now its a gone story. Mobilink didn’t come up with any justification or any alternation in its Blackberry sales’ approach.
But that’s not the end, i blv raising voices like you are doing, and adding up the contribution from each individual will lead us to a situation where regulators would be more powerful and consumer friendly as effective as FCC.
Looks like somebodys is gonna get a hurt real bad!
I believe all of these allegation are baseless and really don’t make any sense. How many of the people sitting in CCP are MBAs with telecom experience to start with? This is a functional case where the legal people involved need to aware of the field and marekt practices carried around. Why should the BlackBerry customer buying from Mobilink should have an option to substitute the floor? If such is the case then accroding the same proceedings why not charge Suzuki Alto that their tyres should fit Cuore otherwise they’re not eligble to sell the car, Bolan’s tyres should fit ChingChi otherwise they’re playing monoply by only producing tyres for Bolan that fit Bolan. Every company has a packaged solution for the market and there are certain triggers to generate and re-generate business. Secondly, if CCP is really enthusiastic about competitive practices, first of all it should take into account by closing down and canceling all ‘exclusive dealerships’ of various products and brands running in the country.
Thanks,
Bilal