PTCL to connect new call centres within 15 days

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Information Technology (IT) Federal Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari pledged on Tuesday that the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited (PTCL) would provide phone connections to call centres within 15 days after the submission of an application.

“PTCL must help in all possible ways the call centre industry. It has the potential to employ thousands of workers in the future, he said in the written instructions to PTCL Chairman Akhter Ahmed Bajwa.

According to a press statement, Mr Leghari said in order to project Pakistan as a preferred location for international call centres, the government had reduced international bandwidth charges, introduced special tariffs for call centres, opened space in software technology parks and allowed duty-free import of IT equipment.

“These incentives have started to pay dividends and international call centres have begun to be encouraged by the government policies,” he said, adding the list of such call centres was likely to extend in coming months.

He said the lack of quickly-available and reliable international connections had been cited to him by potential investors as a problem area for call centres, mainly because of long lead times and lack of redundancy in the backbone system. “The latter problem has been addressed by the IT Ministry - PTCL shall provide redundant VSAT (very small aperture terminal) connections to all international call centres.”

About the long lead times problem, Mr Leghari said his ministry had given instructions to PTCL to guarantee that all international connection requirements for call centres were positively met within a fortnight so that operators were not unnecessarily delayed.

He said in future, call centre operators and PTCL would also be encouraged to sign service level agreements ensuring that reasonable quality of service was delivered by the operators to users. “We hope that with these measures, the international call centres business will be encouraged, would create new jobs and help in economic progress of the country.”

Home | National