Telcos Warn Govt of Service Degradation Owing to Financial Crunch

Carriers told the government Wednesday that with dollarized cost structures such as telecom rates, investments, fuel and electricity, the telecom industry needs to achieve an average revenue per user (ARPU) of $1.50 or more to survive. requested that it should be maintained at

Carriers have warned the government that services will deteriorate further in the coming days due to the lack of letters of credit (LC) being opened, anticipated load shedding, and flawed policies that tie usage fees to US dollars. I warned you.

President and Group CEO PTCL and Ufone Hatem Bamatraf, Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim, Telenor CEO Irfan Wahab Khan and Zong representatives visited the Federal Minister of Information Technology and Communications Saeed Amin Ulhakhe. The conference discussed matters related to the IT and telecommunications sector and issues facing the industry.


Industry insiders also spoke about price caps introduced by regulators. This prevented operators from raising prices. He highlighted that the current ARPU of 80 cents is the lowest in the world and that the industry needs to stay above $1.50 to survive.

The CEO praised the minister, whose business plans have become impossible due to uncertainty caused by fluctuating exchange rates, rising interest rates, and fuel and electricity prices.

The devaluation of local currencies jeopardizes the business case for telecom operators, as telecom license fees and installment fees are pegged to US dollars. Continued devaluation of local currencies poses the greatest threat and hinders sound financial planning.

Another issue raised at the meeting was the delay in finalizing the infrastructure sharing policy. This can reduce your spending by several times. Furthermore, the limited opening of LCs prevents carriers from expanding capacity to meet the growing demand. Load shedding is expected to increase further as summer approaches, one of the people said, adding that telecom networks are running on backup power and telecom services are expected to continue to deteriorate.

Power outages are increasing in various parts of the country, making it increasingly difficult to keep networks up and running. Back-up power and fuel are limited to specific timeframes and are not intended for regular long outages.

When asked about his 5G launch in the country, an industry source said the country’s current economic situation made it impossible to launch the service this year.

The IT minister told his CEO the government was aware of the problems in the telecommunications sector. He assured the ministry would provide Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishak Dar with a full picture of the scenario and urge immediate action to resolve these issues.