NEW DELHI, India-Cellular operators in Pakistan will move to the calling party pays (CPP) regime by the end of November, following a decision by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Making incoming calls free on the mobile phones is expected to boost growth of the country’s cell-phone industry.
The PTA has finalized an interconnect agreement between the three private mobile companies and the state-owned Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL), according to PTA Chairman Mian Mohammad Javed. Under the CPP regime, customers will not pay for receiving calls. Instead, a caller from a fixed telephone will be charged 3 rupees (US$0.05) per minute, as a fixed-to-mobile call will be treated as a premium call.
The PTA chairman said PTCL will retain 1 rupee (US$0.02) and would pass 2 rupees (US$0.04) on to mobile companies. For the international calls received on mobile phones from the PTCL system, it will pay 2 rupees per minute to mobile-phone companies.
