Pakistan Long Distance Rates Soar

May 13, 2008

Effective May 1, 2008: the Pakistan Telecom Authority raised the termination rates by 100%, from 5 cents per minute to 10 cents per minute to all landlines in the country this will effect all phone card manufacturers with cards to Pakistan. Phone Card Depot rate researchers have provided this article to clarify situation surrounding the across-the-board rate increases.

The top calling cards to Pakistan retailed by Phone Card Depot that are affected include: CiCi Calling card, Gold Calling Card and First Choice Calling Card.

The move was made to satisfy demands of local Pakistani operators that had been pleading for the increase since the industry was deregulated several years ago. The move was made possible because the PTA has recently improved it’s security on illegal telephony traffic from calling cards and other call routing services. A flood of illegal phone traffic would have resulted if the PTA had increased the termination rates prior to this security upgrade.

This change will not affect local calls made within Pakistan, but will affect the rates charged by telecom and phone card companies to consumers calling Pakistan from abroad.