Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd., commonly known as PTCL (Urdu: مشارکتِ پاکستان برائے بعیدالمواصلات (المحدود)) is the national telecommunication company in Pakistan.[1][4] PTCL provides telephone and internet services nationwide and is the backbone for the country's telecommunication infrastructure. The corporation manages and operates around 2000 telephone exchanges across the country, providing the largest fixed-line network. Data and backbone services such as GSM, HSPA+, CDMA, LTE, broadband internet, IPTV, and wholesale are an increasing part of its business.
Originally a state-owned corporation, the shareholding of PTCL was reduced to 62%, when 26% of shares and control were sold to Etisalat Telecommunications while the remaining 12% to the general public in 2006 under an intensified privatization program under Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. However, the 62% of shares still remain under the management of government-ownership of state-owned corporations of Pakistan.[5]
Leadership
In May 2021, Etisalat by e& appointed Hatem Bamatraf as President and Group CEO of PTCL. Hatem previously served as the CTO of Etisalat.[6][7]
History
Posts & Telegraph Department
From the beginning of the Posts & Telegraph Department in 1949 and establishment of Pakistan Telephone & Telegraph Department in 1962, PTCL has been a major player in telecommunication in Pakistan. [8]
Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation
Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) took over operations and functions from Pakistan Telephone and Telegraph Department under Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Act 1991. This coincided with the Government's competitive policy, encouraging private sector participation and resulting in the award of licenses for cellular, card-operated pay-phones, paging and, lately, data communication services.
Privatization Plan
Pursuing a progressive policy, the Government in 1991, announced its plans to privatize PTCL, and in 1994 issued six million vouchers exchangeable into 600 million shares of the would-be PTCL in two separate placements. Each had a par value of Rs. 10 per share. These vouchers were converted into PTCL shares in mid-1996.[8]
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited
In 1995, Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Ordinance formed the basis for PTCL monopoly over basic telephony in the country. The provisions of the Ordinance were lent permanence in October 1996 through Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act. The same year, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was formed and listed on all stock exchanges of Pakistan
PTCL launched its mobile and data services subsidiaries in 2001 by the name of Ufone and PakNet respectively. None of the brands made it to the top slots in the respective competitions. Lately, however, Ufone had increased its market share in the cellular sector. The PakNet brand has effectively dissolved over a period of time. Recent DSL services launched by PTCL reflects this by the introduction of a new brand name and operation of the service being directly supervised by PTCL.
A shop of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) in Islamabad
As telecommunication monopolies head towards an imminent end, services and infrastructure providers are set to face even bigger challenges. The post-monopoly era came with Pakistan’s Liberalization in Telecommunication in January 2003. On the Government level, a comprehensive liberalization policy for the telecoms sector is in the offering.
In 2005, Government of Pakistan decided to sell 26 percent of the company to some private corporation. There were three participants in the bidding process for the privatization of PTCL. Etisalat, an Abu Dhabi company was able to get the shares with a large margin in the bid.[9] In June 2005, Etisalat won the 26% of PTCL shares along with management control of the then telecom monopoly for US$2.6 billion. As of 2019, Etisalat has held back $800m amount over a property-transfer dispute with the Pakistani government.[10]
The government's plan of privatizing the corporation was not welcomed in all circles; countrywide protests and strikes were held by PTCL workers. They disrupted phone lines of institutions like Punjab University Lahore along with other public sector institutions.[11][12]
Wireless voice services used to be provided through PTCL's CDMA2000 network, which was broadcast over the 1900 MHz WLL frequency under the 'Vfone' brand name, however, the network was shut down on 31 August 2016 nationwide to allow the spectrum to be re-farmed for PTCL's 'CharJi' LTE service.
Internet
PTCL offers three different types of fixed-line broadband across 2,000 cities* in Pakistan with plans ranging from 2 Mbit/s to 250 Mbit/s.[23]
Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) - branded by PTCL as FlashFiber - plans from 20 Mbit/s to 250 Mbit/s
*PTCL's FlashFiber is currently only offered in 70 cities.[24]
Wireless
PTCL also offers TDD-LTE based Wireless Broadband under the 'CharJi' brand name with coverage in over 70 cities. Service is only available through their provided mobile hotspot device.[25]
Ufone is also a wholly owned subsidiary of PTCL, it also the fourth and the smallest cellular provider in mainland Pakistan. It provides GSM, HSPA+ and LTE services over the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands.
Television
In addition to voice and data services, PTCL also offers digital TV services based on DVB-IPTV under PTCL Smart TV brand name.[26] PTCL users can also stream live TV using the Smart TV smartphone application.[27]
In 2006, PTCL terminated Nayatel's E1 link at their colocation facility despite Nayatel fulfilling all the requirements as per their interconnect agreement.[28]
Again in 2016, PTCL and Bahria Town were both involved in preventing other ISPs from laying fiber infrastructure in, effectively giving PTCL a monopoly for voice, data and TV in Bahria Town.[29]
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) issued a show-cause notice to Bahria Town for abusing its dominant position. After the case was heard, a fine of 2 million PKR was imposed on Bahria Town and CCP ordered them to allow Nayatel and any other potential entrants to lay their fiber infrastructure, allowing healthy competition in the ISP sector.[30]
On 20th February 2024, Nayatel submitted a complaint with PTA alleging that PTCL was actively blocking Nayatel IP addresses as Nayatel terminated their bandwidth agreement directly with PTCL due to price gouging. Nayatel instead opted to purchase PTCL bandwidth through Telenor Pakistan and Zong CMPak who were authorized by PTA to resell to other licensees, as this was more cost effective for Nayatel. However, PTCL refused to allow Nayatel's traffic to pass through its network since the bandwidth was purchased through a reseller.[31][32]
Phone number format change
PTCL had started with 10 digit numbers for landline telephones. The first three (in case of smaller cities, 4 or 5) signified the area code (e.g. 042 for Lahore) and the rest (7 for large cities, 6 or 5 for smaller ones) were the subscribers number. Due to the large demand for landlines in Lahore and Karachi, in 2009, PTCL decided to increase the 7-digit subscriber numbers to 8-digits, adding "9" before existing Government numbers and "3" before the others (e.g. the number 042-7878787 before 2009, was changed to 042-37878787).[33]
5G trials
PTCL successfully carried out 5G trials in February 2021 and achieved download speeds up to 1.7 Gbps in their testing environment.[34]
Acquisition of Telenor Pakistan
After Telenor ASA announced in November 2022 that they would leave the Pakistani market,[35] the sale of Telenor Pakistan to PTCL was announced in December 2023. Subject to regulatory approvals, PTCL will acquire a 100% stake in Telenor Pakistan for US$493 million.[36][37]
^Nair, Dinesh; Chan, Vinicy; Baigorri, Manuel (9 November 2022). "Telenor Kicks Off Sale of $1 Billion Pakistan Business". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 14 December 2023. Telenor ASA is pushing ahead with plans to sell its operations in Pakistan, which could be valued at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
^Mjaaland, Ola (14 December 2023). "Telenor selger datterselskap i Pakistan for 5,3 mrd: – 18 vellykkede år" [Telenor sells daughter company in Pakistan for 5,3 billion [NOK]: – 18 successful years]. NRK/NTB (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023. Det er klart at det har vært krevende 18 år, ingen tvil om det. Men på den andre siden har vi gitt 45 millioner mennesker en mobiltelefon. Vi har også greid å bygge en kultur som har gjort at vi har blitt lagt merke til. [...] [Brekke] nevner blant annet at selskapet innførte svangerskapspermisjon 6 måneder som den første noen gang i dette markedet, og at ingen andre selskaper i Pakistan har så mange kvinner som jobber hos seg. [It clearly has been 18 demanding years, no doubt about that. But on the other hand we have given 45 million people a mobile phone. We have managed to create a culture which has caused us to be noticed. [...] Brekke mentions among other things that the company was the first in the [Pakistani] market to implement a 6 month maternity leave, and that no other company in Pakistan employs as many women as them.]
Rs. 96.26 billion (US$330 million)[2] (2023)
