ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) blocked or recycled over 5.8 million inactive SIM cards across the country during the fiscal year 2023-24.
The annual report for 2023-24 released by the telecom authority revealed that the PTA received 191,514 consumer complaints related to telecom services and 99.3 per cent of them were resolved during the last year.
Against illegal SIMs, authorities conducted 40 raids in different cities including Kasur, Kharian, Sialkot, Lahore, Peshawar, Puno Aqil, Kashmore, Sukkur, Sheikhupura, Sharqpur Sharif, Rawalpindi, Multan, Sahiwal, Hassan Abdal.
“7,500 SIMs and 152 biometric verification system devices were seized in these raids,” the report said, adding that the PTA also arrested 47 suspected individuals.
The authority also blocked 5,294 mobile numbers being used to defraud the public. It also blocked 4,507 IMEIs and 113 national identity cards for looting people last year.
The report further revealed that the PTA, under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), actively handles complaints from public and government organisations concerning unlawful online content, and 1.43 million URLs linked to unlawful activities have been processed for blocking.
Furthermore, PTA said that over 91 per cent of the country’s population has access to cellular services, while all areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan have been covered with telecom services.
The broadband subscribers have increased from 127.6 million in June 2023 to 142.3 million in September 2024, with average speeds up by 28 per cent from 15.65mbps to 20.02mbps, the report maintained.
