| PTA’s Contributing Efforts to tackle COVID-19 in Pakistan - 01/05/2020 |
| Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) |
| TELECOM/ICT Policy Makers and Regulators | Asia & Pacific | Pakistan (Islamic Republic of) |
| Regulatory Initiatives: • Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been playing its role supplementing Government of Pakistan’s efforts by effectively leveraging digital technologies to trace and track patients, identification of COVID-19 clusters and running an extensive awareness campaign to reach users through Telecom network. • PTA successfully mobilized the telecom sector to carry out activities required to maintain performance and services. Operators increased data allowances and offered discounted bundles & packages (additional data and on-net voice minutes) to facilitate users. • PTA and telecom sector are striving to quickly expand the network to areas devoid of broadband coverage (fixed line and mobile). • To facilitate operations of educational institutions and businesses, 205 IPs have been whitelisted till date to carry out voice over. • PTA also allocated 15 different short codes and 7 UAN (Toll Free) to Government entities working on controlling the pandemic. • PTA has also contributed to the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Relief Fund in the form of employee’s salary contributions.Operators’ Support: • To ensure that Pakistan stays connected, PTA immediately analyzed international and national bandwidth peak trends & capacity, and engaged all operators for capacity upgrades, load balancing and traffic optimization. A 5 to 22 percent increase in volume was observed across networks with high mobile data demand in areas of limited penetration of fixed residential networks. • Operators introduced free minutes, calls and free access to emergency numbers and websites related to Corona Virus such as govt. hospitals, doctors and helplines. • To facilitate students, free access to universities web portals and free student packages were offered. • Free services to share balance and cash backs on online balance recharges. • Extension in billing due dates was allowed. • PTA and telecom sector also striving to quickly expand the network to areas devoid of broadband coverage (fixed line and Mobile). • Telecom operators contributed over Rs. 230 Million in PM’s COVID-19 Relief Fund. Users’ Awareness: • PTA directed mobile operators to send COVID-19 awareness messages to subscribers across Pakistan. 1843.87 million SMSs have been sent to mobile users as of 25th June 2020. • More than 1 million cautionary messages, as of 25th June 2020, have been sent to travelers and persons suspected of coming into contact with the Virus. • PTA directed mobile operators to replace standard ring back tone (heard by caller when call is being made) with Corona Virus preventive message. It was auto-activated on 79.4% (131.7 million) of total subscribers’ mobile devices. • To promote online education, PTA is working jointly with Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. Till date, 239.2 million awareness SMSs have been sent regarding TeleSchool, Pakistan’s first education channel. • PTA is also facilitating in arranging donations by Mobile users in ‘PM’s COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund-2020' through SMSs on 6677 code. To increase public awareness about this initiative, 142.08 million SMS messages have been sent to subscribers. |
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Source Link Keywords: Connectivity, mobile, digital services, Quality of Service |