Post ICH: International Incoming Traffic Triples, 500 Mln Minutes Come Through OTT

Legitimate international incoming traffic reached 1.02 billion minutes during April 2015, up from mere 367 million minutes per month during November 2014, mainly due to removal of ICH that allowed LDI operators to charge high rates for international calls, said a statement issued by MoIT.

With removal of ICH and deregulation of international incoming traffic, LDI operators are now independent to charge International calls whatever rate they find suitable for them. Which essentially means that the incentive available for grey telephony is removed and this is why legitimate traffic has crossed 1 billion minutes per month mark with-in just two months of removal of ICH.

According to Ministry of IT estimates, more than 500 million minutes per month are separately consumed through OTT services, such as Skype, Viber, WhatsApp and others, taking the total count of legitimate international incoming traffic to 1.5 billion minutes per month.

Pakistan lost Rs. 400 billion, almost four times of what it generated through 3G/4G auction, due to ICH

Ministry said that consumers moved to OTT services during ICH time and now even when ICH is removed it is very hard to bring such consumers back to conventional telecom operators for their international calling needs.

Ministry of IT said that decline in legitimate international incoming traffic due to ICH caused an estimated loss of 44.4 billion minutes during the whole span of ICH, and thus causing the country an accumulated loss of Rs. 400 billion in total — almost four times of what Pakistan generated through 3G/4G auction.

Ministry said that removal of ICH has normalized the international incoming traffic and hence the legitimate revenues of the operators.

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