| Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has reduced the country’s mobile termination rates. The PTA will immediately reduce rates by 20%, followed by a further 22% reduction after one year.
The existing termination rate was set in 2002 at Rs.2.00 per minute for a period of two years. The PTA initiated a review of the rate in April 2004 and after consultation with stakeholders have concluded the process with the agreement of all operators.
The decision takes effect on 1 August 2005. The new mobile termination rates are Rs.1.60 per minute for the first year and Rs.1.25 per minute for the year thereafter. PTCL share for fixed to mobile calls will be Rs.0.52 per minute (Peak), which was previously at the level of Rs.0.80 per minute. This would mean that consumer tariffs for local calls (Peak) made from fixed to mobile will now be Rs.2.12 per minute as compared to Rs.2.80 per minute previously.
The PTA decision will not only reduce the tariffs of fixed to mobile calls by more than 25% on average but will also provide direct incentives to mobile operators to further reduce their tariffs.
In its decision, the PTA also changed the charging increment for inter-operator settlements from the current per-minute basis to per second starting 1 August 2006. This change is intended to encourage mobile operators to bill their customers on a per second basis.
Source: PTA press release |