Cellular network errors irk customers
By Adnan Rafique

Islamabad—Despite repeated warnings issued by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), millions of mobile phone customers continue to suffer as the networks of major cellular operators remain out of work due to issuance of excessive connections.
A senior PTA official on condition of anonymity told Online that most of the complaints had been lodged against Mobilink, a subsidiary of Egypt-based Orascom, which shared almost 50 per cent of the total 90 million mobile phone customers in the country. " Complaints against some cellular companies, especially Mobilink are increasing day by day. We have issued several warnings to the company to either upgrade its network capacity, or not to issue further connections in order to avoid inconvenience to the customers", the official said.
However, he said, it seemed if the company did not pay any heed to PTA warnings. " We are taking up this issue very seriously, and if the company (Mobilink) does not take some immediate steps to rectify the increasing network errors, some strict actions, including a heavy fine may be imposed", he added.
The PTA official said the major reason behind the growing network errors was issuance of excessive connections irrespective of the fact that the company's network capacity could not bear the burden of such a huge number of connections.
Most of the complaints are about nighttime, he said. " The indiscriminately issued millions of pre-paid connections are the major problem. Scores of complaints have been received only during last one month from the customers stating that it is almost impossible to get connected after 11 PM", he said