Telenor isn’t Shutting Down Operations in Pakistan: PTA

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in response to an absurd news published in an Urdu daily during the weekend earlier, clarified that Telenor Pakistan isn’t shutting down operations in the country. PTA, in a statement issued today, said that it was wrongly attributed by the publication on the closure of Telenor services in Pakistan. It may be recalled that Telenor was in news recently after its global CEO commented that it could look at merger opportunities in Asia including Pakistan. PTA clarification said that it never issued any statement relating to Telenor and anything said in the paper was untrue. PTA said that it never received any request from Telenor for termination of its services in-country, nor anyone requested PTA for NOC on any proposed merger among the cellular operators. PTA, in a statement, said that any potential merger happening in Pakistan will require regulatory approvals and that operators must get PTA’s nod in order to merge their operations. However, no such intimation has been made yet. PTA further said that the publication never reached out to authority for its statement and ran the story without any input from the regulator.