The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has rejected the Cellular Mobile Operators’ (CMOs) request for a moratorium on quality of services (QoS), as it would harm the network’s quality and users’ experience. According to official sources, the CMOs have been facing challenges related to non-availability of equipment, network optimization, and power backup provisions to improve their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
The CMOs had asked for a one-year moratorium on QoS, roll-out obligations, Universal Service Fund (USF) fees, and a reduction in the Research and Development (R&D) fund from two percent to one percent. They also requested a voice and data floor price uplift mechanism to optimize the base price. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had asked PTA to respond to the issues and follow legal procedures.
In response, PTA stated that one of its primary responsibilities is to promote the availability of high-quality, efficient, cost-effective, and competitive telecommunication services across Pakistan. The NGMS licenses and Cellular Mobile Network Quality of Service (QoS) Regulations 2021 have minimum QoS standards for voice and mobile broadband that all mobile operators must comply with at all times.
PTA has already provided facilitation and relaxation regarding some QoS parameters, including a relaxation in Call Setup Time and an improvement in User Data Throughput from 2Mbps to 4Mbps for 40 and 256Kbps to 1Mbps for 30 in a phased manner. PTA also limits the testing mode of End-to-End Speech Quality/Mean Opinion Score to Narrowband only in AJK and GB for two years.
PTA conducts regular surveys to ensure that all CMOs maintain the Quality of Service. While cellular operators are generally fulfilling QoS standards for NGMS services, there are serious issues with voice KPIs. Recent licenses issued to CMOs require them to provide an average throughput of 4Mbps for data services, to be completed by March 2024. However, voice KPIs, which were not a new introduction and are followed in all previous licenses, are not being met.
Therefore, PTA rejected the moratorium on QoS as it would harm network QoS and users’ experience. PTA acknowledges the challenges faced by operators in terms of non-availability of equipment, network optimization, and power backup provisions to improve KPIs, but believes that a moratorium on QoS is not the solution