PTA fines telecom operators Rs3.41 billion over poor service quality

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has imposed more than Rs3.41 billion in fines on mobile and internet service providers over the past four years for poor quality of service, according to figures provided to Express News by PTA sources.

The penalties came alongside 86 show-cause notices and 20 warning letters, the outlet reported. A single large operator carried the largest fine, of about Rs350 million.

The same figures show how the total grew. An earlier stage of the enforcement was reported as Rs68.9 million in fines tied to 39 show-cause notices and 17 warning letters; when operators did not improve quality of service, the amount rose to Rs3.41 billion.

The regulator carried out more than 700 surveys, of which over 500 were quality-of-service surveys covering cities, villages, highways, motorways and railway tracks. More than 200 surveys were conducted in response to public complaints.

Complaints remain the main driver of enforcement. More than 8,000 were received in the first six months of 2025 alone, of which 99.17 per cent were resolved, most of them through the authority's toll-free helpline 0800-55055.

Alongside the fines, PTA directed operators to close coverage gaps in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities by October 2026, and to install 1,000 new sites each year. It said 480 MHz of additional spectrum has been released, with the aim of lifting 4G speeds from about 14 Mbps to 120 Mbps and 5G speeds to 150 Mbps.

Not all of the problem lies with the companies. About 9,000 mobile sites, 17 per cent of the total, remain shut because of power load-shedding, right-of-way disputes, electricity theft and the theft of equipment from towers, according to the figures, with the worst situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. The record was also presented in the National Assembly.

A PTA spokesperson told Express News that action against operators under the law continues on the basis of notices and quality surveys, with the aim of providing uninterrupted service to the public.

Separately, UrduPoint reported that internet users may face slower speeds during peak hours until 2 November because of repairs to the AAE-1 submarine cable.