(Islamabad : March 19)   A meeting was held on 19^th March, 2009 at PTA Headquarter which was attended by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of all mobile companies. Chairman PTA Dr.Mohammed Yaseen appreciated the efforts made by mobile companies in launching of new system of �??Activation of SIMs After Verification�?�. Chairman PTA described that PTA is constantly monitoring the new regime throughout Pakistan, AJ &K and Northern Areas. It was observed that system performance is more than satisfactory and whatever teething problems faced in the initial stages have been sorted out.

Chairman PTA emphasized that the procedures and processes must be monitored by mobile companies themselves so that Franchisees and Retailers are checked. Any Franchisee/Retailer found violating the procedure shall be dealt severely.

Chairman PTA informed the meeting that PTA has been interacting with different organizations using Jammers and continuous work is undertaken to remove the illegal Jammers so that availability of interference free spectrum is ensured.

It may be mentioned that PTA and mobile industry is also working jointly to introduce a new SMS based system by virtue of which a mobile user can be able to know the number of SIMs working against his/her CNIC by sending a SMS. A similar system is active through which a subscriber sends a blank message to �??667�?� and return message gives antecedents of that particular SIM owner.

Khurram Ali Mehran

Director (PR)