CMOs Ask Government to Increase ARPU from 80 Cents to $2

The economic crisis has wreaked havoc on almost all the sectors operating in the country. Cellular mobile operators (CMOs) are one of them. A dispute has taken place recently among the national telecom regulator (PTA) and CMOs over the payment of dues and collection of revenue. CMOs argue that they have to pay the license fee of spectrum in USD while the revenue collected by them from users is in PKR, which causes the disparity. Furthermore, in this regard, CMOs wanted a 250 percent rise in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), i.e. from 80 cents to two dollars, in order to cover rising expenses caused by the policy of tying license prices to the U.S. currency and difficulties in the establishment of Letters of Credit (LCs).

On behalf of the CMOs, the Vice President of Jazz Mudassir Hussain while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication  said,

Due to high fluctuation in dollar rate and high-interest rate, work on current as well as future business plans have halted.

The Monday meeting of the parliamentary committee, chaired by Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali, revealed great concern about the poor service and weak signals of mobile network carriers across the nation. The committee instructed telecom providers to improve their services to the greatest extent possible, given their existing resources.

In response to committee members’ worries about bad telecom services, Hussain stated, “Everything is not well” and listed various challenges, including the lowest ARPU practically internationally. Pakistan is the 237th cheapest country out of 239, according to Hussain, and with its current ARPU, it cannot compete with the EU or the United States. “We do not require any additional relief, but rather an increase in ARPU from the present 80 cents to $2,” he continued. Throughout the past six months, the CMOs have spent billions of rupees beyond their budgets to cover rising expenses, he claimed.

Member of the Ministry of IT and Telecom, Muhammad Omar Malik, cited the delay in court decisions as the primary reason for the delay in rollout requirements, which, according to him, caused loss to the country. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) informed the committee about independent surveys done in the Chitral area. However, the surveys revealed that the quality of network services was below the required standards. The PTA would initiate legal proceedings against Telenor, and its report would be shared with the committee.

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