Pakistan Telecommunication Authority received 31,266 complaints
against telecom operators including cellular operators, PTCL, LLs, LDIs,
WLL, ISPs and CVAS during 2012-13, compared to 33,310 complaints during
the previous year, said PTA’s annual report for 2012-13 which is going
to get public in next few weeks.
PTA claims that almost 98% of consumer complaints – or a total of
30,912 complaints, were resolved after authority perused them with the
relative operators.
The number of complaints against CMOs has the highest share (64%) in total complaints followed by PTCL (34%).
With respect to current 128.93 million cellular subscribers, the
number of complaints against CMOs is a small ratio, compared to
complaints vs. subscriber base ratio of PTCL.
Consumer Complaints Received During 2012-13
Interestingly, the number of complaints against CMOs during FY2012-13
has dropped by 7% compared to FY2011-12, whereas complaints against
PTCL (the fixed line incumbent operator) have increased by 7% during the
same period.
PTA said that in collaboration with operators, it has taken
appropriate actions to reduce the problems faced by cellular mobile
users.
A deeper analysis of the cellular complaints reveal that out of the
19,938 complaints received against mobile services and Mobile Number
Portability (MNP), 43.5% were related to misuse of mobile services
followed by MNP (20.4%).
Share of Complaints by Category (CMTOs & MNP) – FY 2013
Complaints’ Received and Resolved (Mobile Operators) – FY2012-13
Over the last two years, complaints related to mobile number
portability (MNP) issues have also decreased by 10% of the total
cellular mobile complaints received by PTA. Although the uptake of
cellular mobile services has profound benefits for the country, the low
literacy rate and some mischievous elements trouble the customers with
wrong calls, obnoxious and unwanted communication. Therefore, this
category has the highest rate of complaints in the cellular sector.
Illegal practices such as obnoxious, fraudulent calls/SMS constitute
17.3% of the complaints while billing, QoS, VAS, poor customer issues
were about illegal practices and others form the rest. Looking at the
complaints received against each cellular operator, the maximum number
of complaints (5,139) were against Mobilink since it has the highest
subscriber base as well, followed by Telenor, Ufone, Warid and CMPak
with 4,157, 4,478, 3,087 and 2,436 complaints respectively.
The percentage breakup of the total complains by each operator
received by PTA shows that Mobilink had the highest number of complaints
at 27% followed by Telnor 23%, Ufone 21%, Warid 16% and CMPak 13%.
Mobile Operators Complaints Share – FY2012-13
PTA successfully resolved 99% of the total complaints received against mobile operators.
PTCL has virtual monopoly over fixed line sector. Therefore, the
nature and number of complaints against the company depicts the overall
state of the local loop sector in Pakistan.
The Authority received 10,811 complaints against PTCL in various
categories. However, faults/disruption in service constitutes the major
chunk of the complaints.
The infrastructure of the incumbent needs immediate attention to curb
this major portion of complaints. Provision of service, QoS, billing
issues and other complaints make up the rest of the complaints.