ISLAMABAD: The government holds no plan to restrict important services such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Skype after spectrum auction of multi-billion dollars 3G and 4G technologies in Pakistan, official sources confirmed to The News on Friday.
The Cellular companies are worried about streams of their cash-inflows in terms of their voice services as increased speed of data communication in the aftermath of 3G and 4G technology will enable customers to shift towards using communication tools through Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber and Skype more frequently.
All these services all over the world are free so it should be treated the same way. After getting data services with more speed, the customers will be able to make voice communication through WhatsApp, Viber and Skype as free of cost instead of making calls through common mobile phones. But the users will have to purchase smart phones or devices for using these services through their cell phones.
“This is not the issue confronting Pakistan only but all over the world the cellular operators are facing these kinds of problems so when it will be resolved internationally then solution will also come into our market,” a senior official of Ministry of Information Technology (IT) told The News here on Friday.
When this scribe contacted to Secretary Ministry of IT, Ikhalque Ahmed Tarar, he categorically stated that there was no plan to restrict these services in Pakistan. The government, he said, would ask the companies to find out solutions in consultation with other stakeholders.
When contacted, PTA high-ups replied, “We are advising the cellular operators to find a solution with the management of these services by sharing revenues with each other”.This scribe also contacted to one top official of a cellular company operating in Pakistan and he said that they knew the market dynamics so they would come up with viable plan to run 3G and 4G without any problem after the upcoming auction.
However, the sources in Ministry of IT told this scribe that the government was going to arrange special conference in coming May in Islamabad by inviting experts from Singapore, Malaysia and other parts of the world to discuss this issue in detail in Pakistan as the situation emerges in the aftermath of spectrum auction in the country.