Wrong number epidemic hits Lahore's landlines and mobiles!

Lahore, Apr 18 : In Pakistan misdirected phone calls have become a common phenomenon, as a result of which people getting connected to wrong numbers have become a routine. Thanks to some technical fault in phone service providers due to "over burdening", people have to call more than once to reach out to the right number.

Call centres of many telecom companies receive several complaints every day about people getting connected to wrong numbers.

On repeatedly trying to get connected to correct number, the callers at times get harsh words from those at the receiving end of the calls.

Abid Mehmood, a complainant at a telecom company's customer service centre, said, "I dialed my friend's number thrice, but got connected to someone else, every time the same person." He said the other person got irritated on the third call and abused him. "I was humiliated because of the company's fault," the Daily Times quoted him as saying,

Qasim Abbas, a resident of Cantonment area in Lahore, said that he had been trying to call a client, but after half an hour of trying and five misdirected calls, he decided to complain about the problem. He said every time he called, he got connected to a different person, but never the right one.

PTCL spokesman Rana Jawad alleged that the cellular companies were at fault. He said his company's server was "working perfectly". The cellular companies had "over-burdened their networks", which could be the reason for their system failures.

The representatives of three major cellular companies categorically denied any problem at their end. They said that the calls made from one cellular network to another would also have been misdirected if they had not been working properly.

ANI