Daily Times

LAHORE: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has started using Type Approval Regulations as per their free will as the officials concerned have exempted the PC tablet and Bluetooth devices without SIM cards from any approval.

Sources said that PTA started type approval of mobile phones in December 2013 as cellular phone without or fake IMEI numbers were being widely used in criminal activities and were causing hurdles in maintaining law and order. The IMEI number is issued from Spain-based Global System of Mobile Association (GSMA).

Numbers of mobile phones of different brands being used around the world today are registered with the GSMA and each mobile phone must have unique IMEI number. PTA has already issued regulations for type approval of terminal equipment known as “Type Approval Regulations 2004” and they have been amended in 2005 and 2006.

Instead of notifying mobile phone and PC tablet in the regulations as category for type approval, PTA merely issued guidelines for approval of the phones. Since the categories in the Type Approval Regulations 2004 not changed deliberately, it helped PTA officials to make changes in type approval categories as per their free will.

Approval of the PC tablet without SIM cards was abolished in 2015 easily as there was no requirement to change the regulations because of deliberate avoidance to update the regulations and in this way, some of the companies importing PC tablet without SIM card were obliged at the cost of PC tablet buyers/users.

This abandoning of type approval requirement for PC tablet without SIM not only deprived public from good quality but they were also deprived from after sale support in many cases.