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Call rates to Pakistan to shoot up

According to telecom sources, the newly set up International Clearing House (ICH) in Pakistan is expected to generate about $1 billion revenues per annum, to which four million overseas Pakistanis residing in Gulf States will contribute a major share. The government has collected about $50 million so far since ICH — a single technical exchange or gateway — began operations on October 1.

The sources said a five-member ICH panel has also been established to sign new agreement for international call termination with foreign carriers by the year-end. Analysts said Pakistan’s quest to ramp up its share of termination charges is expected to push other countries to do the same on a reciprocal basis.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, the country’s regulator, has also assigned 14 Long Distance International operators (LDIs) in the country to instal monitoring equipment by the end of this year for checking international traffic, which has increased to 275 gigabytes from a mere 15 gigabytes in 2008.

The analysts said call rates to Pakistan may go up by 300-800 per cent, depending on respective countries and networks, as the rates for all incoming calls are likely to shoot up to 8.8 cents a minute from a flat rate of 1.25 cents a minute. They said monthly incoming international traffic to Pakistan is around 1.5 billion minutes per month, which will translate into $120 to $150 million of increased burden on overseas Pakistanis for making calls to the home country.

The sources said the charges of calls from Europe, the US and Canada have registered a slight increase as the average termination rates went up from 6.25 cents to 8.8 cents from October 1, 2012.

Skype and other calling card firms have also withdrawn special packages that they used to offer to overseas Pakistanis for cheaper calls using the voice-over Internet protocol service. Skype has also increased per-minute call charges to Pakistan at 14.5 cents a minute as a standard tariff.

“The call charges from Gulf countries will also shoot up in coming days as the telecom operators in the region are going to sign new agreements in line with the policy of the Government of Pakistan,” according to sources in the Gulf telecom industry.

“The termination rates apply on a reciprocal basis, and if these go up in new agreements, we will have no choice but to pass on the burden of revised charges to the subscribers,” they said.

Etisalat and du, the two telecoms operators in the UAE, were not immediately available for comments.

According to a senior Pak telecom official, the termination rates in Pakistan before the setting up of ICH were very nominal and stood firm at 1.25 cents a minute compared to eight to 16 cents in Afghanistan, 15 cents in Norway, 10 cents in the European Union and Indonesia, 9.5 cents in Sri Lanka and eight cents on UK Mobile.

In GCC countries, the termination rates stood at 21.5 cents in Oman, 15 cents in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and 13 cents in the UAE.

Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE Jamil Ahmed Khan said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority issued a ruling to establish ICH in order to avert grey calls termination in the country as in the past respective LDIs had their own clearing houses.

He said some of the 14 LDIs operating in the country entered into an unhealthy competition by lowering the rates even below minimum charges around the world.

“The LDIs could only do this by evading Rs26 billion charges owed by them to the government,” Khan told Khaleej Times.

To a question regarding the termination rates, he said Pakistan has been charging the lowest rates (1.25 cents) since long compared to 15 cents by Saudi Arabia and 13 cents by the UAE in the Gulf region.

The overseas Pakistanis residing in the UAE expressed concern over the Pakistan move aimed at generating more revenues from them.

“It is understood that the telecom operators will pass on the cost of higher termination rates to their subscribers. We have been sending precious foreign exchange to the country and getting no facility in return. It is an indirect taxation on us. We paid more taxes for air tickets while going home and now have to pay more to stay in touch with our families,” said Adnan Zafar, a Sharjah resident.

Another aggrieved resident said the government should stop offering lip service to overseas Pakistanis and refrain from making tall claims of facilitating them.

“The government is fighting in apex courts on dual nationality just to facilitate a group of elites. But they don’t have the will to facilitate majority of overseas Pakistanis sending $13 billion remittances annually,” Zulfiqar Ahmed said.

“My monthly budget is definitely going to upset due to increased spending on phonecalls back home. The various calling cards companies have also stopped selling bundle offers and packages and I have no choice left but to squeeze my telephone spending,” said Saba, a housewife.

muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com