PTA Organizes 3rd National Workshop on Telecom Reporting

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) organized “3rd National Workshop on Telecom Reporting” for the capacity building of media persons covering telecommunications sector, today at PTA Auditorium, F-5/1, Islamabad.

Senior officials of PTA gave presentations on different topics concerning telecom sector of Pakistan and touched upon new initiatives from PTA being taken for consumers to the press. The workshop was quite informative and interactive, as many ambiguities regarding the performance of CMOs and PTA itself were responded by the Chairman PTA, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah  himself. Presentation were made by:

• Miss Nabiha Mehmood-Director Consumer Protection
• Mr. Nasir Ahmed- Director General
• Mr. Yawar Yasir-Director General Enforcement

Miss Nabiha Mehmood, Director Consumer Protection, was the first speaker who shed light on how PTA has organized number of Consumer Forum in the recent past as well as media campaigns in order to encourage dialogue and input from all stakeholders of the industry and consumers on the services issues pertaining to the telecom sector. She explained in detail:

• The complaints mechanism of PTA for handling consumer’s issues and complaints
• Complaint Analysis for the year 2014: In 2014 more than 39,000 consumer complaints were received and processed at PTA with respect to grievances against telecom services

Nabiha also shared PTA’s efforts regarding awareness of general public by arranging media campaigns on key consumer issues for the awareness of telecom users. She added that:

“These campaigns include informing general public on telecom consumer complaint handling mechanisms, misuse of telecom services, reporting on suspected grey traffic activity etc.”

The Director concluded her speech by saying:

“PTA trying its vest to be the voice of consumer.”

Mr. Nasir Ahmed talked about the general efforts and improvements taken by the PTA in order to curb grey traffic and Biometric SIM Verification system. He explained the re-verification exercise as being part of the National Action Plan. PTA informed reporters that till 12th April, 2015 PTA and operators had blocked 22 Million SIMs. The number of successfully verified SIMs remain 70 Million; which is great achievement in short period of time.

Mr. Yawar Yasir, Director General Enforcement also conducted a very interesting session followed by question answers. He gave a detailed presentation on major enforcement activities being carried out by PTA. He told the participants about:

• Mobile subscriber’s documentation
• Authentication activities (Biometric SIM Verification)
• PTA efforts against grey traffic
• Surveys conducted by PTA to check the radio frequency power interference/radiation

Chairman PTA, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah who attending the workshop briefed the participants on PTA future plans and fundamental changes being made in the organisation and the telecom industry for to bring the country at par with developed countries. He told participant’s that PTA’s future plans include:

• focus on issues surrounding cyber security so that internet  could flourish
• establish internal exchanges province wise in order to regulate national traffic itself rather than relying on international exchanges
• ensure and develop mechanism for “Quality of Experience” rather than just “Quality of Services”. One such initiative taken by PTA is the launch of its own “Speed Test Application” very soon for the benefit of consumers and operators alike. The application will be free to download for everyone.

Chairman PTA, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah distributed certificates amongst the attendees of the workshop and appreciated their role in making people aware of the Telecom related issues and developments. Phone World team also attended the workshop and were given certificates.