ISLAMABAD : Jazz and Wateen continued to raise concern at the last hearing of proposed acquisition of the Telenor Pakistan by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company ltd (PTCL) claiming that after the merger of Ufone and Telenor – the joint entity would enable PTCL group to manipulate tariff structures in telecom sector at their will.
The fifth and the last hearing in Phase II review of PTCL’s acquisition of Telenor and Orion Towers ltd was held at the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), here Thursday, where the counsel for the PTCL Rahat Kaunain responded to the objections and queries against the proposed merger.Jazz Set to Phase Out 3G Services
Ms Kaunain extensively referred to the CCP’s 2016 order related to the merger Mobilink & Warid, and said that mergers and acquisitions were not the issue, anti-competitive behaviour and abuse of dominance should be the matter of concerns.
The review was conducted by Chairman Dr. Kabir Ahmed Sidhu, alongside Salman Amin, Member CCP and Abdul Rashid Sheikh Member CCP.
She highlighted that after the merger the market share between Jazz and new merged telecom company will be narrow and it would strengthen the competitive behaviour in the market.
She named that after the previous merger in the telecom sector of 2016 the new player at that time Zong too progressed in terms of subscribers.
At the same time the PTCL team only focused on the proposed merger and called upon the bench to ignore the key objections.
While, Wateen opposed the proposed merger, Jazz and Zong have expressed competition concerns and the fear of abuse of dominance after the merger of Telenor Pakistan with Ufone, and both the entities would be operating under the PTCL, that is the largest player in internet as well as other segments of the telecom sector.
The representative of Wateen highlighted issues related to upstream telecom market, and said that the LDI operators including Wateen would be at the disadvantage – as after the merger the PTCL would be in a position to sign contracts with overseas telecom operators to have their inbound telecom traffic through the PTCL LDI.
Wateen highlighted that under such conditions PTCL would be in a position to ‘dish-out’ other LDI competitors.
The CCP bench posed critical questions regarding the potential impacts of the merger, ensuring thorough scrutiny of the competitive dynamics in the telecom sector and inquired about potential benefits to the customers.
The CEO PTCL Hatem Bamatraf responded that the country lags behind its regional peers in terms of telecom performance and digital adoption, and the customer would benefit through enhancement in the overall service offerings, including an expanded retail and customer care network, value-added services, and a plethora of digital offerings.
