PTCL

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) is the leading telecommunication authority in Pakistan. The corporation provides telephonic and Internet services nationwide and is the backbone for the country's telecommunication infrastructure despite the arrival of a dozen other telecommunication corporations, including Telenor Corps and China Mobile Ltd. 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, CDMA, broadband Internet, IPTV, and wholesale are an increasing part of its business.

Originally one of the state-owned corporations (SOEs), the share holding of PTCL was reduced to ≈62%, when 26% of shares and control was sold toEtisalat Telecommunications and the remaining 12% to the general public in 2006 under an intensified privatization programme of prime minister Shaukat Aziz. However, the 62% of shares still remain under the management of government-ownership of state-owned corporations (SOEs) of Pakistan.

From the of beginning Posts & Telegraph Department in 1947 and establishment of Pakistan Telephone & Telegraph Department in 1962, PTCL has been a major player in telecommunication in Pakistan. Despite having established a network of enormous size, PTCL workings and policies have attracted regular criticism from other smaller operators and the civil society of Pakistan^{[citation needed]}.

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 award of licenses for cellular, card-operated pay-phones, paging and, lately, data communication services.

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.

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 the 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.

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 telecoms sector is in the offering.

In 2005, Government of Pakistan decided to sell 26 percent of this company to some private corporation. There were three participants in the bet for privatization of PTCL. Etisalat, a Abu Dhabi-based company was able to get the shares with a large margin in the bet.^[2] Government's plan of privatizing the corporation were 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 public sector institutions were also blocked. Military had to take over the management of all the exchanges in the country.^[3] They arrested many workers and put them behind bars. The contention between Government and employees ended with a 30% increase in the salaries of workers.

In addition to wireline line operations, PTCL also provide fixed line service through its countrywide CDMA based WLL (Wireless Local Loop) network, under the VFone brand name. In the Internet segment, PTCL provides fixed broadband through conventional copper wire & FTTC and wireless broadband based on EvDO Rev A and B technology with the brand name of EVO.Ptcl has also introduced a 3G tab. In the cellular segment, the second largest cellular provider in Pakistan,Ufone based on GSM 800/1900 technology, is also a wholly owned subsidiary of PTCL.^[4] In addition to these services, PTCL also offers some of the world's first commercial HD TV services based on IPTV with the brand name of Smart TV and home surveillance and alarm over broadband under the brand name iSentry. PTCL is also part of the consortium of three major Submarine communication cable networks: SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 4 and I-ME-WE. PTCL offers Pakistan fastest WiMAX connection EVO Wingle at 9.3 Mbit/s.^[5]

PTCL is the largest telecommunications provider in Pakistan. PTCL also continues to be the largest CDMA operator in the country with 0.8 million V-fone customers. The company maintains a leading position in Pakistan as an infrastructure provider to other telecom operators and corporate customers of the country. It has the potential to be an instrumental agent in Pakistan’s economic growth. PTCL has laid Optical Fibre Access Network in the major metropolitan centres of Pakistan and local loop services have started to be modernized and upgraded from copper to an optical network. On the Long Distance and International infrastructure side, the capacity of two SEA-ME-WE submarine cable is being expanded to meet the increasing demand of International traffic.^[6]

PTCL had started with 10 digit numbers for digital 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 subscriber's 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).^[7]