Ten years back, Canada only had one overseas/Long Distance telephone company, Bell Canada. There were no paid phone cards as today and there were no other private overseas carriers in the field either. I remember, because of Bell Canada’s monopoly, it was charging $3.67 per minute for Pakistan. But by the pace of time, as other fields of human life developed, this sector of overseas/Long Distance telephone service also marched forward…so in next few years, not only several North American companies jumped into the business but the market was inundated by the pre-paid phone cards, not only for Pakistan but all over the world. Because of the highly competitive rates of the pre-paid phone cards, Bell Canada, Primus Canada and Sprint Canada had to cut down their high rates to 27 Cents to 75 Cents per minute for Pakistan plus tax. The Pakistanis are still not satisfied by those rates because pre-paid phone cards are cheaper than telephone companies and thus 95% of the people from all over the world use pre-paid phone cards to make calls to their original countries including, Pakistanis, which literally charges them 25 to 30 Cents per minute with no tax. Plus, the pre-paid cards have the convenience of calling from anywhere 24/7.
Looking to all these details and the development of the technology even the per minute telephone rates for Pakistan are still substantially on a higher side as compare to Pakistan’s neighboring countries. For instance, India, which virtually has half an hour time difference and some 15 to17% higher value of it’s Rupee against Dollar than Pakistani Rupee has a wide difference in rates of almost 30 to 50% from Canada.
There are three major Overseas/Long Distance Carriers in Canada besides some local ones and pre-paid phone card users.
Bell Canada charges 79 Cents per minute for Pakistan and for India 65 Cents. Primus Canada 27 Cents for Pakistan and for India 17 Cents and Sprint Canada charges 65 Cents for Pakistan and 53 Cents for India. You can see the wide difference between the two countries.
If you take pre-paid phone cards which are used by 95% of the people from Pakistan and India and work it out, Indians end up paying 13 to 17 Cents per minute while as, Pakistanis average 25 to 30 Cents per minute.
Besides this wide difference of rates, the Pakistani-Canadians also face an other huge problem and botheration while calling to Pakistan. You have to sit down considerably and try calling for Pakistani cities again and again for a longer time. Sometimes call does not go through. Sometimes, it is one-sided. Sometimes, it’s breaking up. Sometimes, you have very hard time hearing the othe rside or the other side vice versa. Sometimes, the number drops again and again and sometimes, you did not even say hi but the system charged you 10-20 cents.
I can tell you by my experience that, I have been calling all over the world for last 10 years and in all those years, I never had the difficulty of connecting and talking in Pakistani cities, no matter Karachi or Bhai Pheru.
In all those years, I have contacted our local and Bell Canada authorities for both matters as above but, they always told me that, it is something wrong with Pakistani lines and phone system.
I would request the PTCL authorities and the Minister of communication to see both areas [a] the higher rate per minute from Canada to Pakistan and ** the technical problem while making phone calls to Pakistani cities.
Re: The Ptcl And Telephone Calls By Overseas Pakistanis
no I would disagree here,
PTCL technology is one of the modern at present time, whole Pakistan is connected to optic fibre backbone when many in EU including UK was on analog lines. now even local loop is getting optic fibre conncetion. even the villages has digital network now. Pakistan didnt have much telephone so when they installed new network, it is the latest one. network equipment used are from Ericsson, Siemens, Nortel, and Cisco
the reason you not getting good quality of service because many providers us Voice over IP for cheap costs, instead of using a voice circuit connection from start to end.
i agree with the cost for calling pakistan is dearer compared to other in the region.
this s because Pakistan has less outward calls to other countries when compared to in comming. PTCL charge for interconnection i think more than the regional coutries so hence companies here in west of US charge us more.
why PTCL charge more ??? because there is very less international call volume, where they can get revenue from consumer. they cant charge consumer for in comming calls so they charge more than normal the companies making call to Pakistan. to promote outward calling, pakistan has reduced international charges.
Re: The Ptcl And Telephone Calls By Overseas Pakistanis
Brother Shafiq
If rates of phone calls to Pakistan are higher than to Indian then ask this and demand it from your Canadian concerned telecommunication network why demanding it from Pakistan. A Lahore lady recently very rightly commented that these Foreign Exports particularly sitting in US and Canada enjoy their life there but keep critcising everything in their ex-motherland which they have left, they keep giving advices, keep demanding this and that but if they have to make a complaint they make it with their Embassy in Pakistan.
To the point that calls made to Pakistan get dropped, to a little extent I would agree with you. First of all international call dropping is a universal phenomen less or more at different places. During the last 10 years PTCL technical service has well improved (staff behaviour minus corporate culture of course ss there). Call dropping has mostly reduced. Where there is any such problems those are due to me and you Brother Shafiq. When I was living abroad like you I did not had any courage and even it never came in my mind to make an extension, make the wire lengthy, shift phone from one room to other at my which both you and me keep doing without even telling PTCL here in Pakistan and thus you and me damage the net work which makes calls dropped. It is Brother Shafiq same like when you and me come from abroad as soon as the plane touches the land we stand up to pick up baggage and run away out of the plane fearing “kheer” outside may not finish. But when flying out from Pakistan when we land in Canada we even do not move on the chair unless the plane come to a complete stand still.
Re: The Ptcl And Telephone Calls By Overseas Pakistanis
Mohtarma Shahnaz,
In all those months since we started discussing my Postal complains in the papers till this PTCL issue, you just behave like immmatured, uneducated, stubborn and deadbeat lady. No offence but I have to write this.
In my entire note, I have no where criticised Pakistan or PTCL. I have simply come up with my problem calling to Pakistan, rates issue and general comments about calls by overseas Pakistanis with in Pakistan. It is one of those letters which hundreds of Pakistanis write everyday in various papers within Pakistan and from outside regarding various matters. I am not doing something different or new.
This is human nature and as a citizen, it is our right to come up with difficulties and grievances and to notify to our respective governments. Do you read letters in The Dawn, The News, The Nation, The Frontier Post, The Daily Times, The Jang and dozens of other papers and try to find out how many people write in papers, send their comments, criticise various things regarding day to day issues within the country, right from a wrong Wapda bill to a rape case of a poor woman. I have not seen your letter-in-comments in papers about gang rapes, murders, theft, political injustices and other issues in our society in Pakistan.
When a person gets sick, he goes to a doctor for treatment or advice and could not simply go to his neighbor or chacha, mama, the same way, as a citizen when we have some problems, we go to the concerned authorities in the respective governments, as one gentleman said, when there is an issue which involves two countries than it has to be solved by both governments.
I have clearly written in my letter that I have already discussed the matter with the Canadian agencies and was told that it’s kind of a matter of mutual understanding and ageement between the two countries to resolve so, I have written to PTCL.
If I am living in Canada, it does not mean, I am the only one out of 150 million people of Pakistan who left his country. There are millions of Pakistanis living all over the world in more than 220 countries. Do you also question when those millions of Pakistanis send Billions of green money to Pakistan every year from abroad towards Pakistan’s foriegn exchange?
Remember, Pakistan is not YOUR country alone, it’s not anybody’s property, it is a country equally to every single from A to Zee. I have every right to fight, argue, discount, criticise for my rights.
Do you think, I would stop writing by your ‘immature’ comments. You are rubbing a wrong place lady.
Plus, immigration or going abroad is not a new phenomenon. It is found even in birds and animals where humans and other creatures of God migrate from one place to another in search of food, water, shelter, education, political, health and other reasons. Our last prophet Muhammad (SAS) also did hijrat (migration) from Mecca to Madina.
Secondly, by living in Canada does not mean that I have relinquished my Pakistani status. I can bet you on one million Dollars that I still have very strong bonds, connections and roots in Pakistan than YOU and millions of other Pakistanis living within Pakistan. I don’t require to provide a certificate of my loyalty to the country and patriotism to any son of a gun as no one drops food at my door in Toronto.
Have you read dozens of letters which appear every day by doctors, engineers, scientists, educationists who complain that they were denied visa for USA, England, Canada and other developed countries? Why they apply going outside and just don’t sit in Pakistan and watch their own pigeons in their backyards?
I also know, in your several posts, you proudly mention that you lived and worked (and still live) outside Pakistan, somewhere in the Middle East. So what is the difference? By the grace of Allah, I am well-placed in Toronto and work as Vice President Marketing for a Canadian-American company.
Here is a sample of a letter which appeared in Dawn on 6th April by a Pakistani. I would suggest you to write this gentleman and advise him to stay in Pakistan and why does he want to go abroad:
I QUOTE:
06 April 2005 Wednesday 26 Safar 1426
Academic’s visa
After about 30 years of service, I retired last year from the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, as dean of the faculty of social sciences. A few months ago I received an invitation for a conference jointly organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS), Islamabad, and the Allama Iqbal chair at Cambridge University, which is to be held in April in the UK.
I submitted my passport and other necessary papers to the British high commission in Islamabad for a one-week visa. After about a month, the high commission returned my passport, with a note rejecting my request for a visa.
The note, which is written in the first person without any name and signatures, also specifies that I do not enjoy the right of appeal, though it does not debar me from applying again. But, of course, this has to be done after paying the requisite fee. Four grounds have been for the refusal.
First, the high commission contends that my “arrangements for attending the conference are at best vague”. I do not think that the arrangements are vague. The ISS letter clearly states that “the Institute will cover international travel, while local hospitality at Cambridge will be taken care of by the Allama Iqbal Chair”.
Since the ISS has issued letters with the same language to several Pakistani academics invited to the conference, I wonder why this objection has been raised only in my case.
Second, the high commission that it is not satisfied about the business/employment claimed by me. It does not behove the high commission to make an unsubstantiated charge against anybody. It would have been more appropriate for it to call up the law firm where I have been working since my retirement.
Third, it is said that “the cost of the trip is not commensurate with the benefits to be gained and there is no indication as to who is paying for the trip”. The first part of the observation is funny because the high commission is trying to measure academic benefits in economic terms.
I was planning to go for an academic seminar and not a business trip. The ISS letter unambiguously states that it would pay for international travel while the local hospitality would be borne by the Allama Iqbal chair at the Cambridge University.
Finally, the high commission says: “You have not submitted any evidence that you have sufficiently strong family, social or economic ties to Pakistan to ensure that you intend to leave the UK on completion of your visit”. This appears to be the most unkindest cut of all because it implies that I might become an illegal immigrant.
PROF IJAZ HUSSAIN
Via email
UNQUOTE:
Look how desperate people are going abroad!
Kindly behave like an educated and matured person instead of built-in-hatred or argumental for the sake of argument or post your replies just to see your name printed on these pages.
Re: The Ptcl And Telephone Calls By Overseas Pakistanis
^ correct, and as Shafiq Bhai has noted that he has already raised this was the Canadian side, he can also raise it with the Pakistani side ..its only with customers contacting the both groups involved which will give them a reason to try and negotiate better rates.