Non-renewal of LDI licences may cause telecom blackout

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday expressed fears of a large-scale telecom blackout due to the non-renewal of Long Distance International (LDI) licenses and informed the parliament about the growing crisis in the telecom sector.

According to the documents presented in a recent meeting of the Standing Committee IT, the non-renewal of LDI licenses will affect 50 percent of mobile traffic as many mobile towers will be out of service.

According to the PTA document, 10 percent of internet traffic will be affected, 40 percent of ATMs in the country will stop working, while the non-renewal of licenses will also affect global traffic to Pakistan and shifting of service to other operators will affect global communications.

The telecom companies and the IT ministry have been at loggerheads on the issue of arrears, while the Steering Committee of the IT ministry has been unable to decide on the formula for the recovery of arrears.

The PTA has linked the renewal of license to the payment of arrears.

The LDI license of three to four companies has expired, while the license

of some companies will expire in the coming months.

The companies have approached the court for the continuation of the services. Nine telecom companies have to pay Rs54 billion in late payment surcharge along with dues of Rs24 billion in arrears to the IT ministry.