Reduce Call Rates to Pakistan to October 01, 2012 level

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Ministry of Information Technology lead the LDI operators to implement International Clearing House (ICH) while the Competition Commission of Pakistan has been opposing the move.

Some social blogs stated that move might eliminate gray or illegal traffic coming to Pakistan besides it increased call pricing for those calling to Pakistan from abroad.

The ICH will streamline all incoming international traffic through a centralized gateway and LDI operators will share the revenues for international incoming traffic based on their current market share with fixed termination charges.

The CCP has expressed its concerns on the move saying the commission could litigate the matter if ICH is implemented. Calls from USA to Pakistan are likely to be charged at as high as 16 $cents per minute, up from 4-6 $cents per minute charged before ICH implementation. Similarly, the call rates from Middle East countries to Pakistan go up by at least 300 per cent. There are reports that rates for calls to Pakistan increased by 300 to 800 percent, depending on respective state and network.

It is worth mentioning here that monthly incoming international traffic to Pakistan is around 1.5 billion minutes per month, which will translate into US120-150 million dollars of increased burden on Pakistani abroad for making calls to Pakistan.