PTA slashes mobile termination rates

Islamabad: Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) said on Friday it had reduced mobile termination rate (MTR) to Rs0.50/ minute from Rs0.70/minute effective January 1, 2022.

Rates will be further reduced to Rs0.40/minute from July 1, 2022.

“Reduction in the MTR has been made after thorough consultation with the telecom industry,” the regulator said in a statement.

PTA is of the view that lowering of MTR would allow more competitive and innovative offerings such as free minute off-net bundles for the consumers. “It is expected to make market healthier and beneficial in terms of lower tariffs for making off-net calls,” the statement said.

“It would also benefit smaller operators in terms of reduced net payments to be made to the bigger operators.”

In July 2021, PTA issued a consultation paper wherein it was observed that current MTR in Pakistan is still higher than the benchmarking results

of the MTR determination of 2018 and the MTRs prevailing in regional countries.

Further, PTA had also received requests from telecom operators to review the existing mobile termination rates.

Majority of the responses received, supported PTA’s recommendation to lower MTR. However, there were opposing responses too.

After industry hearing and thorough analysis, PTA has determined the MTR for all types of calls -- local, long distance and international incoming calls -- terminated on mobile networks from other mobile networks or fixed networks in Pakistan and AJ&K/GB, to be Rs0.50/minute from January to June 2022, Rs0.40/minute from July 2022 to June 2023 and Rs0.30/minute from July 2023 onwards.