Here are the results from our most recent poll on billing errors. This matches the results from PTA survey and shows that billing errors are common and a source of problem for consumers. After service quality issues, this is probably the worst that a consumer faces.

This is definitely an area where telecom companies can strive to make a difference. Our advice is to keep the packages simple and not make it too hard for customers and also for your own billing systems.

Poll results are based on a sample size of ~150 votes.

Dealing with spam, unwanted calls and stalkers can be very stressful. Here’s some  information and links which can help you cope with this. While looking at this issue, we researched on the privacy policies of mobile companies operating in Pakistan. Out of 5 mobile network operators, we found 2 privacy policies which were posted online.

• www.telenor.com.pk/privacy/privacy.php
• www.waridtel.com/privacy_policy.php

For your reference you can block the user following the guidelines presented in our prior posts about Call and SMS Blocking, here and here. Unfortunately getting rid of the problem is not always that straightforward. For example, see this TGP discussion in which one member’s number was used – spoofed would be a better choice of word – for sending unwanted SMS.

We thought its worthwhile to share excerpts from Telenor’s privacy policy:

SMS/MMS is a very useful means for persons/companies who wish to send information on their products/services quickly. Unfortunately it is also improperly used by some who send mass advertisements to people with whom they have no contractual relationship.

Spamming is the unsolicited dissemination of mass advertising/information via telecommunications. When mobile owners receive such SMS/MMS messages, it must be assumed that these messages are sent systematically via the internet to entire blocks of numbers.

What responsibility does Telenor bear?

Telenor is responsible for transporting information across its network and cannot monitor messages sent by private individuals or companies. Telenor only ensures that these messages are transported without being aware of their contents. Telenor cannot filter the SMS/MMS received by its customers because this would mean checking the content of the messages, therefore violating the confidentiality of telecommunications.

Telecommunication companies are not in a position to monitor and prohibit the transmission of unsolicited messages because they cannot know if a commercial relationship exists between the sender and the recipient of the advertising message. They are only aware of spamming after complaints are received from customers, whose responsibility it is first and foremost to take action against the spammers. Depending on where the spam has come from and following unsuccessful interventions by customers against spammers, the companies can then intervene with the spammer to demand that they stop this practice, and if the offence is repeated, the spammer can be prohibited access to the network. Unfortunately this is not possible in every case.

What can You do if spamming continues?

Please contact Customer Care in writing, including all the details of the SMS/MMS message(s) including the number of origin of message, content of the message, date and time of receipt etc. Unfortunately, Telenor cannot guarantee that you will not receive messages of this sort in future, since anyone who has access to the mobile network can send advertising SMS/MMS messages without Telenor being able to monitor this.

Research and Market, the world’s largest market research resource have recently published forecast reports of next five years for mobile operators of Pakistan and other countries. The key points of the report as mentioned in its summary give a very interesting picture of the state of telecom industry in Pakistan.

• Subscriber growth is slowing down in Pakistan’s wireless market ; +7.0% industry average subscriber growth in 3Q.2009
  • The wireless penetration rate is still low at approximately 60% in 2009, and it is expected that the country’s wireless market will continue to show strong growth. The forecasts says that total mobile subscribers in Pakistan will increase from 96 million in 2009 to 134.8 million in 2014. So, we might touch 100 million by 2010 end.
    
  • Mobilink will continue to be the largest player in Pakistan’s mobile operator space over the next five years. The expected mobile subscribers of Mobilink will be 36 million  in 2014.
  • Also, given the latest quarter numbers, the forecast predicts that Ufone will have 25.8 million, Telenor will have 29 million, and Warid will have 25.3 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2014. In this case Mobilink will still be playing on its first mover advantage and the lead the market with Telenor at second.
  • Market share loss at Mobilink and market share gain at China Mobile Pakistan from 2010 – 2014 is expected. In terms of shares of total subscribers, we expect that Mobilink’s market share will decline over the next five years, from 30% in 2009 to 26.7% in 2014. On the other hand, we expect China Mobile Pakistan’s (Zong) market share to increase from 8% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2014. The Zong’s growth predicted is quite low.
    
  • The market shares expected at Ufone, Telenor, and Warid will be approximately 19.2%, 21.6% and 18.8% respectively in 2014.
• ARPUs are decreasing in Pakistan’s mobile operator space; -8.0% operator-wide average ARPU growth in 3Q.2009
  • ARPU levels will remain low in Pakistan’s mobile operator space. We expect that the industry average ARPU will remain in the range of US$ 2 – US$ 3 over the next five years. This could be the worst consequence of indulging into price war.
  • In 2014, Mobilink’s monthly ARPU will be at highest among operators at US$ 2.64. The operator with the lowest monthly ARPU will be Warid Telecom with US$ 1.67 in 2014. There is a high chance of Mobilink’s ARPU being dependent on its post-paid subscriber base, which will continue to be the largest.
    
• Minutes of Use per Subscriber are increasing at Mobilink and Telenor; +12.5% industry average MOU/Sub growth in 3Q.2009
• Strong EBITDA growth at Telenor in the latest quarter; Industry average EBITDA growth was +0.4% in 3Q.2009
  • Given the excellent performance by Norway’s Telenor in Pakistan’s wireless market in the recent past, the forecasts is that its EBITDA margin (calculated as EBITDA / reported revenue) will be increasing from about 23% in 2009 to 35% in 2014.
  • On the other hand, Mobilink shall maintain its EBITDA margin of approximately 35% over the forecast period, 2010 – 2014.

We are conducting a poll to collect consumer feedback on telecom billing errors, resolution process and improvements that can be made. As one example, PTA recently issued a show-cause notice to PTCL for, among other things, a high number of billing error (79 errors per 10,000 bills). Below are some statistics for reference.

These are from a survey conducted by PTA and PTCL in 2009 and represent the average of the nationwide results. We often hear that consumers of other telecom companies have similar issues with billing and we would like to get your opinion about this. We also want to know if the process of resolution of these issues is working well or not.

Here’s the promotion for Djuice ‘Pakka Dost’ international offer. Its one of those “limited time” offers. Note the fine print on the side: 50-paisa is for 30-seconds.

Rohan Samarajiva of LIRNEAsia has published a post titled “Pakistan Competition Commission appears to have mobile telcos on the ropes“. The post describes how evidence emerged on price fixing for balance inquiries and steps taken by Competition Commission of Pakistan. The details of this case are quite interesting and offer many insights into the minds of telecom decision makers.

It started with something innocuous. Within a very short period of around a week all the mobile operators in Pakistan announced they would charge 10 Paise for balance inquiries. The Competition Commission of Pakistan naturally initiated an inquiry. The mobile operators said there was no price fixing and that this move was intended to reduce the overuse of this service.

But then someone turned up with copies of emails showing the existence of a CEO Forum and details on discussions of prices, not only for balance inquiries, but for other services as well. Having completed the preliminary inquiry the CCP has now issued formal show cause notices.

Wake up call to the region’s mobile operators. Competition is intense, we agree. But do not violate the law. Even if not all South and SE Asian countries have general competition law and agencies in place, many operator licenses include prohibitions against price fixing. What Pakistan is doing now, could well happen in other countries too.

PTA has just released 2009 December mobile subscriber stats. Though it would have been nice if  the industry could hit 100 million mark in calendar year 2009, we are content about the overall progress (7.6 million net additions) of the telecom segment. Mobilink had a good last quarter, ending with 30.8 million susbcribers and retained its market share of 32% from the beginning of the year. Telenor is firm at second spot. Ufone also showed good progress (18.5 M) towards the end of year but overall it fell behind Warid (18.8 M) which became the number 3 in terms of total subscribers.

The growth in the first quarter of 2010 will be important.  Obviously we are looking at multiple challenges which telecom – and other industries – are facing in Pakistan and also on global scale.

Here are some snapshots. First one shows overall market share at end of 2009. Below that are the December growth numbers for each mobile network operator.

PTA recently published results from their Quality of Service tests. If you look at the results for speech quality of mobile service providers , it shows that Dadyal in Azad Kashmir has the best!! Congratulations to Dadyalians.

As we figure out explanations to which city has the best service (and there could be many ways this could be decided) there are other questions that one wonders about. According to these results performance of all operator is below the benchmark set by PTA. Was the bar too high or do we have really bad speech quality??

Dawn News has reported today that PTA in its recent QOS survey have found that operators have failed to meet the set standards despite being asked to improve on it. PTA have issues a show-cause notice to all cellular operators over this issue. I wish PTA gives out the details of the survey to general public like they did in 2007, so that we can judge operators on basis of their QOS.

The operators had earlier been asked to improve their network after a Quality of Service (QoS) survey found their performance not up to the set standards, a PTA spokesperson said.
However, despite passage of reasonable time, all cellular operators failed to achieve the desired results.

‘As a result, the PTA issued show-cause notices to all mobile (phone) companies for failing to maintain the quality as per the license conditions,’ according to the spokesperson.

The QoS survey included quality of voice and SMS in 14 cities of Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Northern Areas as well as all major highways. The exercise was conducted by the PTA’s enforcement teams with the latest automated QoS equipment.

The PTA had been conducting such surveys throughout the last year and shared results of first three quarters with the operators with directions to improve their services. The final comprehensive survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Talking about survey results, PTA Chairman Dr Mohammed Yaseen said ensuring provision of quality services to the telecom consumers had always been a priority of the authority.

‘The PTA defines its targets and goals wherein QoS survey of all services remains one of the major activities.

Via Dawn News

The latest PR affirms State Bank of Pakistan and PTA are closely working on a unified policy for mobile banking that will connect all banks of the country with cellular mobile operators for mobile transactions. No mentions about where the existing mobile banking framework will stand with it.

About 3G, PTA again gives hopes this time saying they are waiting to receive the policy from MOITT  which is working on it and will soon initiate the licesing process. This is the same soon being said from over a year now. It also talks about the importance of local content and applications for information and communication sectors of Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is closely working with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on the draft of “Third Party Mobile Banking Regulations” which will be finalized soon. Once finalized, it will connect all banks of the country with cellular mobile operators for mobile transactions. It was said by Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen while addressing to a press conference held here today by Nokia Siemens Networks.

Chairman PTA said that the primary objective of this collaboration is to develop a unified regulatory framework to facilitate the customers of telecom and banking sectors both at a time, since mobile banking involves both financial institutes and mobile phone operators.

He said that the telecom sector of Pakistan has shown phenomenal growth in the past few years which has resulted in the expansion of subscriber base and it has also opened up new doors of business opportunities in the telecom sector.

He said that currently Pakistan has overall 63% teledensity while it has great potential for broadband proliferation. Presently there are around 5 lakh broadband subscribers in Pakistan. The broadband subscriber base has grown by 146% in the last fiscal year. He said that it is for the first time that broadband connection charges for 1Mbps connection has dropped below Rs.1000/- providing unusual incentive to new broadband customers.

In response to a question about 3G Services, he said that Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom (MoIT & T) is working on the Policy for 3G licensing. PTA has completed ground work and would initiate the licensing process soon after it receives policy from the MoIT & T.

While commenting on the study named “Connectivity Scorecard 2009” commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks and written by Professor Waverman, fellow of the London Business School and the consulting group LECG, Dr. Yaseen said that it is always important to have a reference point in order to measure the growth, performance and to enhance the working strategies of any sector.

He emphasized on the need and importance of local content and applications for information and communication sectors of Pakistan. He said that PTA is trying to motivate current telecom market players to focus on this aspect of the telecom sector to take maximum advantage of the given opportunities. He quoted the example of Bangladesh where BBC has recently launched English learning mobile application which is very popular within the masses. He said that Pakistan also needs such applications with local content especially in the fields of Education and Agriculture. He said that Pakistan’s telecom sector was ranked at top levels in different categories in several studies carried out by international telecom organizations.

Mr. Vaqar-ul-Islam, Head of sub-region Gulf and Pakistan for Nokia Siemens Networks and Mr. Saad Rafique, Country Head Nokia Siemens Pakistan also spoke on the occasion.

Source: PTA