Telephone, data service partially restored in 10 districts of Balochistan

Telephone and data services have been partially restored in 10 districts of Balochistan on Saturday.

The recent deadly flooding have had disrupted the communication facilities in the province.

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Quetta, Ziarat, Khuzdar, Loralai, Pashin, Chaman, Panjgur, Zhob, Qila Saifullah, and Qila Abdullah suffered a massive internet and telephone blackout on Friday noon.

The PTA said serious damage to the cable and optical-fiber network due to torrential rains and flash floods caused the outages.

PTA in a statement said that the optical-fiber cable network of PTCL has suffered cuts at three different locations due to the usage of heavy machinery for clea­ring floodwater,

“However, by-passes and satellite-based connectivity were used to operationalize telephone and data services in Quetta by 3 pm, the PTA statement added.

The services of PTCL and telecom operators, including Ufone and Telenor, started coming online by 4 pm in Quetta and other districts, the PTA statement said.

Consumers in flood-affected areas can make calls on zero balance!

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday announced that consumers in the flood-hit areas in all the provinces can make calls even with zero balance.

The IT and telecommunication ministry and PTA have issued directives for all mobile telecom companies to arrange the facility from Saturday (today).

“The initiative has been taken to improve public rescue and relief efforts,” a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

In another development, the PTA has allocated a short code “9999” to enable mobile subscribers to donate to ‘Prime Minister’s Flood Relief Fund 2022’. Users can donate Rs10 by typing ‘fund’ in SMS and sending it to 9999.