Home »Articles and Letters » Articles » PTCL, a customer-friendly face

There is a well known but simple principle of economics - demand and supply. The more demand and the increase in supply but there is also a universal truthless profit more sale.

In our tax-ridden society consumers welcome a slight tariff relief from a utility service establishment as a boon from the divine. Generally such a relief is short lived or is unknown in our country's history.

No doubt consumers do get some relief but receive a shock a few weeks later when an unbearable hike in the shape of double or triple tax is announced. But we have here, a phenomenon, a prodigy, commonly known as the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

That they are aware of the meaning of customercare is evident from the result of their goodwill, that they are multiplying their assets. A decade back, the telephone service had become a nightmare.

Dial right but get the wrong number. 18 and 17 only added to agonising situation. Private, confidential conversation was bugged by a third party without any effort and without asking for it.

Patience was taxed for months in waiting for a telephone connection applied for reasons of urgency. Indiscipline and inefficiency prevailed. It took weeks to get a lineman to correct a simple fault.

And then the telephone department taxed the nerves, challenged the pride or customer and only God Almighty knows what they consumed - may be their own boiling blood.

The poor customers were billed for possession of a ghost telephone set. All this is besides the ever increasing and unending tariff. Nobody could boast of sound mental health if they owned a telephone set.

I remember a friend who had gone abroad for six months and he had kept the telephone connection in the 'safe custody' of the department. On his return he was welcomed with a Rs 100,000 phone bill, perhaps as penalty for recreation abroad.

If my memory does not fail me the department was called T and T but was popularly known as TNT (trinitrotoluene), abbreviation for a high explosive by students of science. Now after the PTCL has come into being, things have started changing for the better.

Perhaps providence helped, obviously because the Company helped itself. There is a marked and transparent improvement in services. More than half of the problems have gone with the introduction of state of the art digital systems, increased efficiency and better discipline of the functionaries at all levels and of course with the tariff relief to customers and their utmost care and satisfaction.

By way of quick and cheap services, going by the statistics available, a record rise of 27.4 percent has been registered during the first quarter of the financial year 2003-04, amounting to Rs 6.34 billions as compared to Rs 4.98 billion during the corresponding period of the preceding year.

Consequently the earning per share (EPS) shot up by Rs 1.24 in comparison with Rs 0.98 per quarter. This remarkable level of profitability growth was won by the two pronged endeavours to raise operating margins ie increase in revenues (11 percent QoQ), growth and decrease in costs (2 percent and 76 percent QoQ), reduction in apex and financial charges respectively.

The Company has recently launched a customer-oriented programme. It is a pricing strategy which is being enforced according to the government's policy of providing affordable services to customers. On the other hand, the package will also prepare the company to meet the challenge of forthcoming competition.

The package provides considerable relief to its customers. Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Awais Ahmed Leghari's keen interest in the matter has resulted in the smooth sailing of the programme.

Some vital decisions were also taken by the PTCL Board, which include strategies for services at home and abroad.

For fault free international services an enhanced submarine cable laying system, for more reliability and capacity of its international connectivity, was also discussed and approved.

At home, the company has reduced per minute nation-wide call rates, for distances exceeding 160 K.M., from Rs 10.04 to Rs 8.50. Meanwhile, rates of distance exceeding 80 K.M. to 160 K.M. have been reduced from Rs 7 to Rs 6.50 per minute, offering substantial help to telephone users.

The ever-rising overseas call rates have been jammed and reduced by 23 percent per minute. Rates for counties like Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Libya, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, UAE, UK and USA have been fixed at Rs 30 per minute against the Rs 39 and Rs 25 per minute tariff for the Saarc counties, which have been retained.

The company has also announced a good number of incentives for its customers which includes reduction in line rent and new telephone connections, encouraging people by easy access to a telephone connection.

These packages will particularly facilitate customers from the low-income group. The company will share, annually, Rs 6.5 billion with customers in the shape of these incentives. Demand for new telephone connections is likely to increase manifold, which will help boost revenue earnings.

Meanwhile, more value-added services for customers are in the pipeline. A cursory glance at the accomplishments of the company indicate that it earned handsome profits during the current fiscal year due to efficiency and the endeavours of its functionaries and of course the planners.

The company seems determined to retain its existing customers, even in a deregulated and competitive telecom scenario. Acting in a big way, reduction in line rent and installation charges have also been announced.

Line rent has been cut down 100 rupees and installation charges reduced from Rs 1850 to Rs 1350 in urban areas and in rural areas respectively from Rs 1850 to just Rs 500.

The rates are applicable from December 1, 2003. PTCL would suffer a revenue loss of up to Rs 6.5 billion. Under the new rates, the PTCL's share in the line rent would be Rs 174 while the remaining Rs 26 would go to the government under the head of General Sales Tax.

The duration of a local call has been doubled from the existing five minutes to ten minutes during off peak hours ie from 10:30 pm to 7 am.

On the operational side, PTCL has also achieved a number of milestones. Its total installed capacity of telephone lines has reached 4.9 million while the number of working connections has reached well over 4 million.

Its network of telephone exchanges throughout the country are 2,831 and 99 percent of these exchanges have been converted from manual to digital. Special attention has also been given to the growth of a mobile telephony in the country.

Ufone, the subsidiary of PTCL alone has a customer base of 0.5 million which shows how rapidly this sector has developed. The government has already made public the telecom deregulation policy by virtue of which other telecom companies could also establish their networks in Pakistan.

That would not only increase the teledensity but also promote healthy competition among the telecom operators.

Another significant measure, taken by the company to address complaints against 17 and 18, is also praiseworthy. 17 and 18 have been computerised.

In case of no reply from 18, a toll free hotline has been introduced where a complaint against the complaint (18) could be lodged and action would be taken in a jiffy. Despite added efficiency, good discipline a snag still remains which needs to be fixed - that is the inefficiency and indiscipline of the line staff. Let's hope some sort of workable solution is also found to tackle this problem.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2004


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