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PTCL

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Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited
IndustryTelecommunication
Founded1947
HeadquartersIslamabad
 Pakistan
Websitewww.ptcl.com.pk


Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is the largest telecommunication company in Pakistan. This company provides telephony services to the nation and still holds the status of backbone for country's telecommunication infrastructure despite arrival of a dozen other telcos including telecom giants like Telenor and China Mobile . The companay consists of around 2000 telephone exchanges across country providing largest fixed line network. GSM, CDMA and Internet are other resources of PTCL, making it a gigantic organization. The Government of Pakistan sold 26% shares and control of the company to Etisalat in 2006.

History

From the humble beginnings of Posts & Telegraph Department in 1947 and establishment of Pakistan Telephone & Telegraph Department in 1962, PTCL has been a major player in telecommunication in Pakistan. Despite having established a network of enormous size, PTCL workings and policies have attracted regular criticism from other smaller operators and the civil society of Pakistan.

Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) took over operations and functions from Pakistan Telephone and Telegraph Department under Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Act 1991. This coincided with the Government's competitive policy, encouraging private sector participation and resulting in award of licenses for cellular, card-operated pay-phones, paging and, lately, data communication services.

Pursuing a progressive policy, the Government in 1991, announced its plans to privatize PTC, and in 1994 issued six million vouchers exchangeable into 600 million shares of the would-be PTCL in two separate placements. Each had a par value of Rs. 10 per share. These vouchers were converted into PTCL shares in mid-1996.

In 1995, Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Ordinance formed the basis for PTCL monopoly over basic telephony in the country. It also paved the way for the establishment of an independent regulatory regime. The provisions of the Ordinance were lent permanence in October 1996 through Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act. The same year, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was formed and listed on all stock exchanges of Pakistan

PTCL launched its mobile and data services subsideries in 2001 by the name of Ufone and PakNet respectively. None of the brands made it to the top slots in the respective competitions. Lately, however, Ufone had increased its market share in the cellular sector. The PakNet brand has effectively dissolved over the period of time. Recent DSL services launched by PTCL reflect this by the introduction of a new brand name and operations of the service being directly supervised by PTCL instead of Paknet.

As telecommunication monopolies head towards an imminent end, services and infrastructure providers are set to face even bigger challenges. Pakistan also entered post-monopoly era with deregulation of the sector in January 2003. On the Government level, a comprehensive liberalization policy for telecom sector is in the offing.

File:PTCLnewLogo.jpg
New Logo of PTCL, effective from August 14, 2007

Last Year, in middle of 2005 Government of Pakistan had decided to sell at least 26 percent of this company to some private agency. There were three participants in the bet for privatization of PTCL. Etisalat, a Dubai based company was able to get the shares with a large margin in the bet.

Last year when Government was going to privatize the company there was country wide protest and strike by PTCL workers. They even disrupted Phone lines of some big Government institutions like Punjab University Lahore and many lines of public sector were also blocked. Military had to take over the management of all the Exchanges in the country. They arrested many workers and put them behind bars. The contention between Government and employees ended with a 30% increase in the salaries of workers.

Many big change events are happening in PTCL at the moment after its privatization. these include the VSS (Voluntary Separation Scheme for its employees), ERP (SAP based), restructuring, B& CC (Billing and Customer Care Software) etc. Another seemingly minor change was change of brand identity (logo) that will present PTCL's new face after privatization, with greater focus on customer satisfaction and bringing about of new advancements in telecom for Pakistani consumers.

Controversy

The Pakistani government was 'gifted' a business plane before the bidding for a controlling stake in the company by the government of UAE. After Etisalat won the bid, it miserably failed to make the payment on time and got proposed a reschedule, resulting in wide spread criticism as not only a financial and logistic national asset went into foreign hands, but also that it wasnt done in an orderly, just, lawful and transparent manner. After the arrival of new governement it is being said that privitization of PTCL was done on a very low cost cmpared to the actual worth of company's assets. Many organizations are trying to bring this matter to the court for re-evaluation of privatization.

Historical Background

  • 1947 Posts & Telegraph Dept established
  • 1961 Pakistan Telegraph & Telephone Deptt.
  • 1990-91 Pakistan Telecom Corporation
  • 1995 About 5% of PTC assets transferred to PTA, FAB & NTC.
  • 1996 PTCL Formed listed on all Stock Exchanges of Pakistan.
  • 1998 Mobile(Ufone)& Internet(PakNet)subsidiaries established.
  • 2000 Telecom Policy Finalized
  • 2003 Telecom Deregulation Policy Announced
  • 2006 Etisalat Takes Over PTCL's management

See also

References


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