August 19, 2012

Cellular Services Suspended in certain cities of Pakistan owing to Security Threats on the eve of Eid 2012

Cellular and data services were blocked in some parts of the country, including major cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta and Multan, 
A letter issued to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority by the Ministry of Interior, directed cellular service providers to block services from 12:00 am tonight to Monday 11:00am. However, the service providers i.e., Mobilink, Warid, Telenor, Ufone and Zong started to shut down as early as 20:00 hrs, Sunday.
Earlier during this week, Cellular Service Providers in Pakistan had been told by the Ministry of Interior that they may be asked to immediately stop services in certain areas of the country between August 19 to August 20.According to a letter issued by the ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell to the CEOs of the companies, the authority aimed to cut off communication capabilities of miscreants and terrorists to foil their plans. It seems that the government must have smelled something fishy communication in the form of voice or digital data going on these networks.
Lets see if PTCLs' Network can handle the voice traffic which will now be diverted towards this old dog which has considerable stakes of government in the form of shares.
On the other hand I wonder what would happen if the terrorists now opt for the landlines or Satellite Phones in total dismay and disappointment.
The historical unofficial data collected from cellular companies depicts that during moon sighting and late past mid-night around 300 million SMSs' were usually expected at Mobilink system followed by around 250 million with Ufone, 200 million Telenor, 150 million Warid and 100 million with Zong, the youngest cellular company in the country.
Bottom line is that these companies were expecting an exchange of more than one billion SMSs' during the Eid day and the following day too.

2 comments:

  1. http://www.qmobilepk.com/mobilink-3g-packages/

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  2. Oh this is a bummer! Makes you wan't to buy a satelite phone doesn't it? :) But seriously, that is exactly why I love satelite phones, you don't depend on the network coverage and you can make a call even from the most remote place on our planet! :) If this sound interesting to you, then you should definitely check out the article I found on the web, talking about the latest satelite phone models: http://hikingmastery.com/top-pick/best-buy-satellite-phone.html

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