M Wajahat Zeeshan Khan - In the new scenario when an all-encompassing security regime is sought to be established in the country, there is also a great need for the government and the PTA to give a relook to the various measures that need to taken to control the issue of fake SIMs as this is one important manner in which information is passed between terrorists and leads to ugly situations for the people of Pakistan.
While the government seems this time to bring about a paradigm change in the way that security steps are taken and implemented, there still appears to be a conflict of interest and lack of intent on part of the cellular industry to take steps could help the government’s initiatives.
The effective implementation of SIM issuance procedures conflicts with the vested interests of the cellular industry, as each operator is striving to achieve maximum numbers without considering the negative aspects of this uncontrolled competition.
The fake SIMs are not only a catalyst of grey traffic but are also a major security threat to the country. Therefore, the prime responsibility rests on the cellular industry, along with PTA, to ensure foolproof system, so that no SIM is issued without proper verification. The implementation of a foolproof system is not very difficult, as portrayed. In fact, it is a matter of commercial interest for of the operators.
Cellular operators have disclosed loopholes to their franchisees and retailers who sell illegal SIMs. Complete sales channels of CMOs, including people working for these influential mobile operators, are responsible for this grave situation.
Their’s is a sort of abetment in the heinous crime. Cellular operators accept that more than 95% illegal traffic is terminated via SIMs offered by Mobile operators but they do not accept any responsibility for this.
It is interesting how operators of cellular companies have tried to camouflage their failure to comply with the procedures laid down by the PTA for issuance of SIM cards. They don’t seem to realize that grey traffic is a menace which is not only damaging the national economy and the telecom industry but is also facilitating the anti-Pakistani elements in a big way.
A major source of termination of grey traffic is use of non-verified SIMs issued by the cellular mobile operators. They are now trying to shift the blame to the LDI industry, which is ridiculous to say the least. LDI operators are the major affectees as they have invested around PKR 3.0 billion to curb grey traffic. However, without the active participation of the CMO industry in the curbing of grey traffic, the desired objectives have not been achieved.
Currently, around 50 to 60 percent of Pakistan incoming traffic is being terminated by mobile operators’ own LDI operators, but they are shifting the responsibility to LDI operators. Various solutions are available to check this situation.
The Cellular operators have superficially blamed the LDI industry for increase in grey traffic and have pointed to the inability of cellular operators to control grey traffic. However, deeper analysis into the grey traffic issue shows that it is very simple to understand that cellular operators essentially generate reports and accordingly optimize their network and sales channels after knowing the usage pattern of SIMs. Such SIMs can be easily identified and can be found out as to which SIMs are used for grey traffic based on location, frequency and nature of outgoing calls, magnitude of balance top-ups and lack of any ancillary services such as use of SMSs or data. A valid question could be asked as to why operators do not ask their call centers to make a courtesy call to owners of such SIMs if these calls go unanswered and there is no customer contact. In such cases, the SIMs should be promptly blocked.
This can be done at the discretion of the operators but they choose not to do so because the SIMs tend to be of high-ARPU. While these operators cry foul on use of SIMs for grey traffic, they also welcome the revenue.
In Europe and North America, unused SIMs are automatically cancelled after a reasonable period of inactivity and the number is recycled. In Pakistan, for the sake of showing ever-growing (manipulated) subscriber numbers, the SIMs and associated numbers are never retired and are never put back in the pool. This is where the PTA needs to step in (as the operators would almost never do it) and implement a policy where any unused (inactive) SIM over a reasonable timeframe is cancelled (say 6 months) and the number is recycled. Short of such measures, the issue of unverified SIMs will continue to persist.
Sale of SIMs is one part and activation of SIM is another part. One way to avoid the conflict of interest of Cellular operators is to focus on the activation part. The GOP, with the assistance of NADRA, may consider deploying an IT system with a suitable application to grant an activation code to a SIM on the request of the user. Examples: the car manufacture sells a car and the GOP registers it. An arms dealer sells a pistol but the GOP grants a licence. There are many similar examples which can help us resolve this issue permanently.
In June 2014, the MoIT issued the withdrawal notification of ICH, effective August 1, 2014 besides setting the APC level to zero, which impelled no changes of recovery of the pending USF liability against LDIs and no future process. Besides, certain operators started their own traffic even before this withdrawal notice, which led to a price war and non-declaration of traffic. In 2014 alone, the volume of traffic reported has halved during the year - and grey traffic is on the rise due to the flux. The situation has become very uncertain after notification in June. International operators sensing the opportunities have started to manipulate the situation against the LDI industry and the national economy. The inflow of receipts is also affected and operators are holding back due payments. The LDI industry, after continuous liaison with international operators, had managed to stabilize the termination rate of 8.8 cents for Pakistan bound international calls. Any change in the termination rate will result in a trust deficit and it would be difficult to ensure PTA-determined termination rates in future.
It is time that the PTA took due cognizance of its role in the national security structure took more steps to set in place a mechanism which would have zero tolerance for any grey traffic. It should proceed more aggressively with non-issuance of illegal mobile SIMs or block them effectively.
(Writer is CEO Circle net
Communications Limited)