Jazz and Telenor filed a petition against Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in Islamabad High court related to the renewal of prices of licensing.
Jazz and Telenor pleaded that charges of renewing the licenses were quite high according to what was fifteen years ago. The new renewal price set by PTA was $449 million, which is very high to original price. They further added that the license fee was higher than what was paid in 2016 by another Telecommunication company.
In 2016-2017 when Jazz acquired Warid, the license was acquired by Jazz for Warid, which was initially acquired for $291 million in 2004 and had the following frequencies; 2 x 4.8 MHz in 1800 MHz, 2 x 8.8 in 1800 MHz Telenor license fee in 2004 was $291 Million as well and for both Jazz and Telenor the renewal was due in 2019 but due to the disagreement on the price the renewal fee was still due.
The disagreement on the price was due to Ufone license renewal in 2016 was same as the original fee which was $291 million in 2004 as well. But, in 2019 Telenor and Jazz were charged much more therefore the case against PTA was filed in Islamabad High Court by both Phone card operators .Both paid only fifty percent of the license fee in advance and both, Telenor and Jazz went to Islamabad High Court with their appeal.
However, PTA justified itself that the economic conditions in 2019 were different from 2016 due to which the price of license was $449 million and said that it was fair, there is no discrimination or over pricing. At the end, after the hearings the petition was ruled in the favor of PTA and the case was won By PTA. However, both the operators have taken their appeal to Supreme Court as they do not agree with the Fee and are paying the fee in installments as plan laid by PTA for the other fifty percent of the amount.
