End of PTCL Monopoly in Broadband

Posted on May 23, 2009
Filed Under >Babar Bhatti, Science and Technology
10 Comments
Total Views: 35883

Babar Bhatti

It used to be that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and DSL operators had to buy Internet bandwidth from PTCL. For the last 2 years this has been a matter of contention whereby ISPs wanted the option to buy from other providers (such as TWA) who have entered the telecom backbone bandwidth market.

As reported by The News:

The PTA, after a series of negotiations, has finally issued the minutes of the meeting held between the ISPAK (Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan) and the PTCL on 5th May 2009 in which it was decided that the ISPs will be free to buy Internet bandwidth from third party operators and would be allowed to link their optical fibre cable to one PTCL exchange per city. The PTA has also decided that the PTCL will not increase charges of its leased circuits used by the DSL operators for inter-exchange bandwidth only for the next year.

The PTA has reserved a judgment on settling the DSL wholesale and retail prices of the PTCL and committed to resolve this long outstanding issue within a month. Pakistan has come a long way from the early days of Internet in 1990s with only one submarine cable connecting the country with rest of the world. The country today has three submarine cables linking Karachi with Southeast Asia, Europe and North America named as SWM3, SMW4 and TWA, first two with the PTCL and the third with a private operator. The total Internet bandwidth to the country stands at around 18 gigabytes, growing at around 45% every year for the last three years.

Photo Credits: PTCL

10 responses to “End of PTCL Monopoly in Broadband”

  1. Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It’s so good and so awesome. I am just amazed.

  2. Shaani says:

    i had placed an order for 1 mbps broadband 3 times in 3 weeks but they dont respond….previously i used Cyber’s dsl and it was awesome…then i switched on to micronet (after shifting my home) and their service was my best experience so far…now as a son of an army officer we have to endure constant shiftings so here i am now running after ptcl for a broadband connexion coz i hav heard that they allow switching of service from one area to another…

  3. Hi ,

    The PTCL has Linemen , Technician and some official staff .
    The most the problems are to be confronted such as ,

    1) Confused Dim .
    2) Sound Distrubances in Phone Line .
    3) Rate of DSL Internet Service Providing is below the said
    speed rate to 200mbps .
    4) Frequent Disconnections of ADSL Links and
    LanLine Links.
    5) Customer Sevice appears Bogus timely .
    6) Technician is a good actor .
    7) Official Staff is quite a good factor of Human Rights
    Violation i.e. a threat to business and human rights .
    8) Violation of LanLine and Phoneline through corrupt
    Linemen .
    9) Money Laundering out of Fake Accounts Cash Flow .

    TY and Good Bye !

  4. Hi ,

    PTCL is one of the worst Broadband DSL Lan Line and We have at last completely fed up with this Rubbish Lan Line Service that reminds me constantly of Etisalat of UAE’s LanLine DSL Service in old times .
    Well,since the UAE has become economically grand crunch in the map of the world ,the UAE’s has started to sell its shares and services to the third world countries in order to balance it its monetary crunch even or they never bother
    to give Nationalities to the poor deserving People who has been known the Country before the Independence of UAE .
    These are those people who used to do farming with
    the Abbu – ” The Late His Highness Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan bin Al Nahyan ” The Royal President and The King of UAE ,
    while the rest of the Budeon Arabs were sleeping , drinking alchohol ,Gambling ,Spending money in waste and Womanizing .
    The Late His Highness Abbu and The Prince Successors of Late His Highness pushed their people to make effort for work and understand the value of work ,so hard that they could get back in track to start working for the Country.
    But you know these Mixed Budeon Arabs are not ready to listen and cope with anyone except himselves .

    “So dont fall for the PTCL Broadband Lanline in future”

    Cheers !

  5. Some interesting comments on this post at the ATP Facebook page:

    – “As long as service is delivered nobody cares, but PTCL was squeezing its subscribers and de-regulation was a good step. Unfortunately, despite of high competition in Broadband category, people are still thinking of wireless connections because of stupid problems that are beyond the control of PTCL. I have two land lines at home but due to noise and distance from exchange, the service was extremely pathetic turning me towards wireless, first was Yateem (Wateem) WiMAX and after wasting money I finally got settled down with Worldcall’s EV-DO. They are still not up to mark but still the best I ever had.”

    – “Huh! I must be among the rare customers of PTCL who are satisfied with their services. I have not faced the aforementioned fault. If I have encountered a problem or two, during this past year..they’ve been quick to cater to the complaints lodged. If i hold a grudge against any company.. it’s Worldcall . Their services are available to the residents just a block from ours but not to us :S”

    – “PTCL’s services are good & inexpensive too. I am using PTCL for almost an year & seldom did I had problems. Although the noise thing irritates but if one uses a splitter, it can be solved. I think it’s better than the too-much expensive Wateen. Anyways, yeah it’s good that the monopoly has been dissolved, now there will be competition which is better for us…:)”

    – “i think if you hate some one and really want to give them the worse kind of mental torture…get them a ptcl broadband connection ! it’s THAT PATHETIC ! i am among the first few ppl go got the service in a week of it’s launch…and since day one i had issues..the customer service is extremely bad… i’m getting rid of it in a week or so …i’m trying maxcom…any advice?”

    – “i have been using Ptcl broadband in my hostel for last 7 months and i have had problems 2 or 3 times during this duration otherwise its quite goood and overall i am satisfied. i have also used wateen at home. Their service may be better but the download liimt makes thm my 2nd option. I have to buy a new connection i will definitely go for PTCL broad band as it is not that expensive and we can have unlimited downloads and the service is not that bad either….”

    – “With PTCL the problem lies in the faulty underground phone lines. We have complained about the line but they dont chnage it. Phone can be used despite the disturbance but net cannot be connected with it.”

    – “I am satisfy with PTCL , they had some Noise issue , then we managed a Direct line from the , PTCL Poll to modem , the old wiring was creating problem at our end , over all it is good , i used Nexlinks before & that was a terrible experience.”

    – “PTCL, Wateen n Cybernet are working on GPON, its fiber to the home (FTTH), the solution of all distortions n noised in coper cables. so hope for the best guys, we can soon enjoy this state of the art technology”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*