PTCL

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. [7]

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.

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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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 public sector institutions were also blocked. The military had to take over the management of all the exchanges in the country. They arrested many workers and put them behind bars. The contention between the Government and the employees ended with a 30% increase in the salaries of workers.

PTCL provides its fixed-line telephone services in many cities of Pakistan.

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.

PTCL offers three different types of fixed-line broadband across 2,000 cities in Pakistan with plans ranging from 6 Mbps to 250 Mbps.[11]

• ADSL2+
• VDSL2
• Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) - branded by PTCL as 'FlashFiber'

PTCL's FlashFiber is currently offered in over 60 cities.[12]

PTCL also offers 4G/LTE based Wireless Broadband under the 'CharJi' brand name with coverage in over 70 cities.[13]

Ufone is also a wholly owned subsidiary of PTCL, it also the fourth and the smallest cellular provider (excluding SCO) in the country. It provides both GSM, HSPA+ and LTE services over the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands.

In addition to these services, PTCL also offers digital TV services based on DVB-IPTV with the brand name of PTCL Smart TV.[14] PTCL users can also stream live TV using the SmartTV application for smartphones.[15]