The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication has decided to summon telecom companies over complaints about poor mobile and internet services.
The committee raised concerns about persistent network problems and questioned the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over the action it had taken against companies.
Committee chairman Aminul Haque said that subscribers often had to dial the same number three times before getting a call through. He said that the quality of mobile and internet services had been declining after the spectrum auction instead of improving.
Haque also asked PTA about the fines it had imposed on telecom companies over the past six months. He noted that the regulator had issued show-cause notices and warning letters but questioned whether it had imposed enough fines.
Committee members Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti, Ahmad Ateeq Anwar, Sadiq Memon and Dr Mahesh Kumar said the authorities were not addressing the reasons behind poor mobile services. They also criticised the PTA for giving the committee repeated responses without showing improvements in network quality.
Member Shazia Fareed said that she received almost no mobile signals during her stay at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in Islamabad.
The committee told PTA to carry out its responsibilities and inform parliament if it faced any hurdle in taking action against telecom companies. Members also proposed calling telco representatives to explain the network problems directly.
PTA officials told the committee that the authority regularly monitored mobile and internet services and conducted surveys in different cities to check their quality.
They said that PTA gave telecom companies 30 days to improve their networks and service quality. The authority could impose a maximum fine of Rs350 million on a company.
The officials also pointed out that telecom companies often approached courts to obtain stay orders against penalties, with several such cases still pending. They added that although the Telecom Tribunal was functional, its decisions had also faced challenges in courts.
PTA maintained that service quality had improved following the launch of 5G and said rollout targets had been set for telecom companies. A PTA member told the committee that the number of 5G sites in Karachi had increased to 279.
IT Secretary Zarar Hasham Khan said telecom companies had installed equipment that met international standards. He added that the government had focused on improving service quality rather than revenue collection during the 5G spectrum auction in March.
The committee decided to call telecom companies to its next meeting and directed PTA to provide details of fines imposed on them and the amount recovered.
The committee also discussed efforts to bring Apple into Pakistan’s manufacturing market, with Haque questioning why the company had not entered the country while other international mobile companies were already operating here.
Engineering Development Board (EDB) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hammad Mansoor told the committee that negotiations were underway to bring Apple to Pakistan.
Mansoor added that efforts were also underway to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif and Apple CEO John Ternus during the prime minister’s upcoming visit to the United States (US).
He said an Apple store had already been established in Pakistan, expressing hope that the company would also enter the country’s manufacturing market.
Mansoor told the committee that 37 companies were currently manufacturing mobile phones in Pakistan, producing more than 35 million devices locally.
The committee was informed that all major smartphone companies, except Apple were manufacturing phones in Pakistan.
Haque directed the IT ministry and PTA to bring detailed information to the next meeting and continue efforts to bring Apple into Pakistan.
