Pak cell phone service affected by Indian bandwidth interference

Lahore, Feb 18(ANI): The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has reportedly complained that bandwidth interference from Indian territories is affecting the service of some cellular companies here.

According to reports, service in parts of Lahore, Sialkot, Kasur, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur near the Indian border have been affected.

"The main cause of the interference is the service of TATA Mobile and Reliance Communications of India that has the same frequency bandwidths as the ones allocated to some Pakistani cellular companies by the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB)," The Dawn quoted a Pakistan Telecommunication Authority source, as saying.

The PTA and FAB have also carried out a joint survey on the issue.

According to the survey, the interference has caused a 'calculable depreciation' in quality of mobile telecommunication services in the areas of Punjab near the Pakistan-India border.

Internal surveys in the telecommunication industry have also revealed that there is also a 'significant increase' in the interference on the bandwidth used by various security forces in the country.

"There is resentment among some cellular operators as they have been unable to improve the quality of service despite large investments to gain consumer goodwill," the source said, adding that as the allocated bandwidths continued to be cluttered with interference, certain companies operating in Pakistan had lost customer confidence.

Meanwhile, a PTA has spokesman said the issue of interference in frequency bandwidth from India has been taken up with the authorities concerned and would soon be sorted out. (ANI)