LAHORE: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said it received 13,325 complaints against telecom operators of the country during 2008-09.
Majority of the complaints were against cellphone operators since they have the biggest share in terms of subscribers in the telecommunication industry.
The PTA, in its annual report for 2008-09, said 7,479 complaints were registered against mobile phone companies.
Most of the complaints (40 per cent) were about misuse of service, obnoxious and fraudulent calls and SMS and illegal practices. After the SIM verification system became operational, 13 per cent complaints were made regarding transfer of connection ownership, issuance of SIMs, blocking of numbers and SIMs without notification and non-registration of SIMs.
The PTA reported 9 per cent complaints were pertaining to service activation, restoration, closure and upgrading while six per cent complaints were about poor customer services.
In addition to those, complaints were also received against obnoxious calls and value added services. The PTA said 95 per cent complaints were resolved during the year.
In the same year, the PTA also received complaints against Pakistan Mobile Database, a company responsible for Mobile Number Portability (MNP).
This year again, service disruption remained one of the major complaints. There were almost 5 per cent complaints related to matters of billing, overcharging, unjustified deduction, tariffs and non-issuance of bills.
In the report, the PTA in its comments said: “In today’s competitive scenario in the telecom industry, it is not the length of time that an operator has been functioning, rather the quality of service and an operator’s willingness to cater to ever-changing and expanding needs of consumers that earns subscriber satisfaction.”

 

Source: The News