Pakistani government may stop mobile video service

The first cellular phone company to offer television on mobile in Pakistan faces government objections. Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), which regulates radio and TV in Pakistan, has served a notice to Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company, that it can't offer a mobile TV service in the country without a license. According to the news report carried by the leading English daily of Pakistan, Dawn, Telenor has already sold more than 300 TV connections.

The controversy started after Telenor started offering the service on April 28. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority gave Telenor a license to operate a mobile phone service four years earlier, but it's not clear whether that license covered TV. Telenor believes it does, but PEMRA disagrees. According to the Dawn report, Telenor should not have offered its mobile TV service to its subscribers without a formal license from PEMRA.

[ethana2]

The solution is simple:

Put it all online and have a have a phone that simply gives one internet access. Not compatible with your business model? Then I have no pity. Get 'em, Pakistanis!

[bobbydi]

Ethana2: Right!

What you said is the way it started- then the phone company started to make a land based system separate from the mobile system. I think making all on the internet system, in Pakistani,
is the best. They do not have a huge industry to
go against as in other countries.

[jamal_shah]

IP services blur the line

All kinds of content services can be delivered over IP (GPRS/EDGE) and I think the Pakistan government needs to just figure the cost of all such "sublicenses" within the cost of a cellular operator license. The Pakistani Technology website, http://techlahore.wordpress.com makes a good point about how it is impossible to stop services like since the content source can be moved anywhere in the world...