PTA Orders 180-Day Validity for Prepaid Balances

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed telecom operators to ensure that prepaid recharges and balances remain valid for at least 180 days, with the new requirement scheduled to come into force from October 1.

The regulator issued the directive after receiving several complaints from subscribers who said their unused prepaid balances were being lost once the assigned validity period ended.

Under the new determination, any prepaid balance that expires must automatically be restored when the subscriber makes another recharge, provided the SIM remains active.

The PTA has instructed all three telecom operators to implement the same policy and has warned them against adopting unfair commercial practices while applying the new requirement.

Subscribers had raised concerns that unused balances were not being carried forward after subsequent recharges, arguing that the practice unfairly increased costs for consumers, particularly people from lower-income groups.

According to a senior PTA official, complaints were specifically received against Zong and Telenor Pakistan, which has since been acquired by PTCL.

The complaints also related to conditions requiring subscribers to maintain a specified minimum balance to keep their SIMs active. The official said failure to maintain the required balance could ultimately lead to cancellation of the SIM.

The PTA’s decision requires every recharge or prepaid balance to have a minimum validity of 180 days in accordance with the Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations.

The regulator highlighted the significance of the decision, noting that approximately 97 per cent of subscribers across Pakistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan use prepaid mobile connections.

A Jazz official, meanwhile, explained that a Jazz SIM remains active for 90 days, followed by a 180-day quarantine period. Once that period ends, the number can potentially be recycled and assigned to another user.

Jazz also operates a separate recycling policy under which a SIM can remain inactive for as long as 720 days before being recycled.

The official said that once a dormant SIM is fully recycled, its previous owner loses all rights to the number and cannot make a claim over it.

Zong and Ufone/Telenor did not respond to queries regarding the PTA’s latest determination.