MyAdhan Blog

Link: Pakistan: Poor service forces customers to demand landline disconnection

Hundreds of people across the city have reportedly submitted applications to their respective telephone exchanges to permanently disconnect their landline numbers as the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has failed to provide quality service to consumers for the last many months. The consumers claimed that their telephones were out of order for the last four to five months and despite submitting applications, visiting the telephone exchange(s) and holding meetings with the divisional engineers and general managers, the issue of faulty connections remains unaddressed. According to the PTCL consumers, they are not only paying the fixed line rent of the dead telephone lines, but also paying other charges under the Pakistan Package and other services introduced by the PTCL management without the consent of the consumers. According to them, the charges amounted to Rs230 to Rs650 in addition to the fixed line rent. A survey conducted by The News in the various towns of the metropolis revealed that dead telephone lines, humming sounds, non-functional equipment at different exchanges and shortage of technical staff to entertain consumer complaints have forced many people to switch over to cellular or wireless services instead of relying on PTCL. Jalal Ahmed, a resident of Gulsitan-e-Jauhar, who has submitted an application to the telephone exchange in his area to permanently disconnect his landline number, said that his landline number has been out of order since November 2007. He said that despite his repeated complaints to the officials of the exchange concerned, nobody turned up to fix the fault. Thus, he finally decided to disconnect the line permanently. M.M. Baig, 69, another complainant from Gulistan-e-Jauhar, said that he has visited the telephone exchange several times but he was always told by the officials there that cable fault has occurred due to digging up of roads by the City District Government Karachi (CDKG) in the area. Baig, however, pointed out that no development work was being carried out in the area when the phone went out of order. Similarly, Uzair, a resident of PIB Colony, said that whenever he picks up his phone to dial a number or to attend a call, he finds that two people are already talking to each other on the line. “The problem of cross-connections is being faced by other area residents also,” he told The News. The area people approached the Pak Capital telephone exchange (Old Sabzi Mandi) to sort out the matter but to no avail, he said. Residents said that unless they bribe the lineman of the area, their problem will never be solved. The New Karachi, Orangi and Korangi telephone exchanges are reported to be among the worst service providers in the city, a senior engineer of the PTCL said on condition of anonymity. He said that other than a shortage of technical staff, the company is also faced with poor infrastructural network.