PTCLDirect Offers Calls To Pakistan From UK But It Is Not Competitive Enough

Published by Babar Bhatti on December 8, 2008 under PTCL, Telecommunications

PTCL has started a calling service for Pakistanis abroad called PTCLDirect. Currently its available only from UK. Here is what PTCL says about it. It is definitely a smart move for PTCL as it allows diversification and a good way for PTCL to increase it base (it is losing landlines in Pakistan). Judging from the youtube ads (which are in Urdu, not English) it seems that PTCL is targeting older Pakistanis abroad with families back home and hoping to leverage its well-established brand name.

However is the service competitive enough? Given the incumbent advantage at home, one would expect PTCLDirect to be cheaper than its competitors but thats not the case. For Pakistan PTCLDirect rate is 6p/minute while Localphone is 4.8p/minute (full discolosure: localphone is a sponsor of this blog).  Similarly for India PTCLDirect is 6p vs 2.4p by Localphone.

Also, PTCLDirect  has no direct dial – you have to go through their two-stage calling card system whereas we also give you the option of assigning a different UK landline number to call straight through to each of your contacts. PTCLDirect  has a handful of UK access numbers – Localphone has 50 in every UK area code, and hundreds more across the globe.

There are a few companies offering similar services, but they all seem to fall in to one of two camps: unreliable companies that advertise low rates but have very poor quality and/or employ
hidden charges that make them much more expensive than they originally seem, and big-brand companies that offer comparable quality but rely on their brand and large marketing budgets to charge customers two,
three, or even more times as much as others with no matching increase in call or service quality.

I have tried many services for calling Pakitan and few have been able to strike the right balance between low rates and quality of service. Let’s see how PTCLDirect performs.

PTCL International Plus Call Package: Less Than A Rupee Per Minute

Published by Babar Bhatti on September 17, 2008 under PTCL, Pakistan, Telecommunications

If you make frequent international calls from Pakistan to Australia, USA, UK, Canada or China then this is a great package for you. Even for someone making calls for say 15 minutes a day (450 minutes per month x Rs.2/min = Rs. 900) this is still a good deal as you get a much bigger bucket of minutes for a bit more. This rate certainly beats any rate for calling Pakistan from abroad. What a contrast from a few years ago when calls from Pakistan used to be more expensive than calls to Pakistan. This reversal can be attributed to the falling cost of VOIP and high termination rate charged by Pakistan.

It would be nice if PTCL provided an easy way of keeping track of your minutes …

Convenient And Cheap Calls To Pakistan By Localphone

Published by Babar Bhatti on August 31, 2008 under Business, Digital Convergence, Emerging Markets Telecom, PTA, Pakistan, Telecommunications

This has been a tough year for Pakistanis living abroad who want to stay in touch with their loved ones in Pakistan. Just when we were getting used to making calls to Pakistan at reasonable rates, PTA increased the rates which caused a huge disappointment. I have been searching for a cheap and high quality service for calls to Pakistan for a while. Last week I signed up for Localphone and I was very impressed by the convenience, quality and the cost (8.9c/minute) for calling Pakistan.

Signup was fast and easy. Localphone provides you a local number in your area which actually calls the number you want in Pakistan. Let’s say you are a Pakistani in Houston; you can get a local Houston number and that number will ring your home number in Lahore. You can specify the numbers from where you will be making calls (your home, mobile etc) and that’s it.

The Localphone.com website makes it real easy and convenient. I was up and running in a few minutes. A credit card is required to complete the registration. I have setup three local phone numbers for myself. Compared to the lengthy process of using calling cards, this is very convenient and the quality is way better than the cards offer.

I enjoy the convenience of making quick calls through a local number and the comfort of knowing that there are no hidden charges – all your call history is a click away. And you can earn credit by referrals – I have placed a link in the side bar so if you sign up through here you will be supporting the blog!