ISLAMABAD: As the usage of internet has increased 15pc due to lockdowns imposed across the country, the service providers are finding it difficult to maintain smooth operations.
According to industry sources, owing to the closure of franchises and restricted movements amid stringent intercity and intracity travel ban across the country, the internet service providers are finding it difficult to mobilize technical support teams responsible for business continuity.
“Yesterday on Twitter, #ShameOnTelecomSector was trending with people demanding free data from local mobile operators. If mobile operators are finding it difficult to provide optimal data performance amidst a global pandemic and mitigating factors, is it wise [for people] to demand a free service, which will only end up choking networks?,” a official telco official said.
In response to the same hashtag, Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim said, “We are all working very hard to keep essential services like communications and the internet fully functional under this lockdown. This is not easy work and requires everyone to be united.”
In another tweet, he mentioned, “We want to minimize the risk of an uncontrolled surge in internet traffic at a time when support teams cannot add additional capacity & are restricted in their movement. Our priority is to provide affordable internet to everyone in these difficult times.”
It may be noted that all four provincial governments have now imposed a lockdown (with some restricted movement) as a preventive measures to tackle the outbreak of coronavirus.
In Sindh and Punjab, the latest orders have brought life to a complete standstill. With the exception of hospitals, pharmacies, some grocery stores and selected bank branches (reduced timings), all other facilities are closed. Police and Rangers are patrolling the streets round the clock to keep a strict check on people stepping out of their houses.
Following the provincial governments, Islamabad District Administration has also suspended all activities, including public transport, public gatherings, shopping malls, restaurants, and public sector offices after the number of infected persons increased alarmingly.
According to sources, the lockdowns have prompted private companies to adopt a mandatory ‘work from home’ policy. With closure of schools and physical isolation becoming mandatory, telecommunication services, especially mobile internet, have become the only real source of entertainment and connectivity.
Apart from the purposes mentioned above, mobile phones and social networking have also become important for the spead of COVID-19 awareness across the globe.
Recently, Facebook and WhatsApp had partnered with international health organizations like WHO, UNICEF and UNDP to launch a WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub to offer actionable guidance, general tips and resources for the users across the globe to be well aware about the disease and hence limit the widespread rumours.
To take advantage of these resources, it has become imperative for the masses to have an active telecom service.
In Pakistan, the government, via Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and some local telecom operators, is spreading voice and text-based awareness messaging over SMS and caller tunes.
PTA is also assisting the Ministry of National Health Services to send SMS alerts to those who have been in close proximity with people tested positive for the virus.
However, despite repeated requests by the authoirty, the fedeand local governments have maintained a strict lockdown of telecom franchises, mobile retailers and mobile markets.
It is pertinent to mention that mobile phone retailers are particularly instrumental in terms of bill payments, mobile balance top-ups, money transfer, utility bill payments and other secondary services, while telecom franchises are the go to places for customers who aren’t tech savvy and require technical assistance with their connections.
“It would be great if the government could implement some effective measures to provide relief to the general public by allowing telecom franchises and mobile phone retailers to operate. This would not only ensure uninterrupted connectivity to the people but will also help them in remaining up to date with the latest happenings, as well as being connected with their loved ones across the globe,” said an industry official .
Grateful to Mr. Ghulam Abbas on Covid-19 the Most Urgent Important at this time is the Telecom Sector, Access to the Telecom Services. The regulatory authority has laid a frame work of licensees TELCO’s Mobile/Terrestrial Services in Pakistan.
The regulatory authority has played a plausible/excellent role. The most important role which need the attention from the Regulatory authority for Terrestrial Services which is the SeaMeWe linkages which provides Pakistan a global connectivity with capacity limitations. The link with very limited capacity can hardly cater to the Data Traffic of the ISP’s, PTCL, NTC, and the costly Satellite linkages which are very costly/un-affordable.
It should be a national emergency to strengthen the terrestrial network of PTCL from under sea, and land network be compliant to the UN/SDG/ITU for compliance to the country healthcare, population, should essentially be upgraded to the most essential G-Pon network in Karachi to meet the contingencies and should be subsidised under the reccomendation of he UN/SDG/ITU as all Federal taxes to consumer, corporate, government, Senior Citizen, PWD as one of the highest priority of the country. This has led the country to ignorance, poverty, literacy, R&D, Scientific research etc.
egultory
To meet the Most Urgent need of national significance a very important role is needed yesterday to enhance the Under Sea linkages from SeaMeWe and all other possible linkages worldwide accessible under sea. The enhanced capacity should be provided to the honorable USF to provide the high speed broad band network in Karachi for accession to PTCL G-Pon service to meet corporate, healthcare, education, Governmenetal, law enforcement, security surveillance, areas availablity of GPon accessible network for ISP’s. This should be the most essential task for the PTA/USF to consider.
it seems that telcos would be hit more by the closure of franchises / retailers , no more mobile cash transactions , no loads, no new sim sales , even voice calling has probably gone down in favor of data calls which give less revenue to the operators
Under the circumstances, asking them to put in more data to improve users experience or provide free data services to students doing online classes seems grossly unfair
While telecos usually employ a distributed model of maintenance and local teams are usually able to attend most faults, its another thing to arrange for spares and consumables or get repair work done, most of the actual telco equipment gets repaired internationally, that cycle has probably been badly disrupted too
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