Mobile clients in Pakistan will not have the opportunity to get Google Play Store services on December 1, 2022 after State Bank of Pakistan blocked $34 million installments worldwide.
Mobile carriers are now no longer making the yearly installments of $34 million to large international organizations like Google, Amazon, and Meta through the quick transporter charging system.
A lot of Pakistani clients may be inclined to use Google and other unfamiliar applications to make purchases utilizing Visas or charge cards. They’ll probably access the application through the Google Play Store, which most people don’t have access to.
Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), the Service of Data Innovation and Telecommunication (SDIT), and four mobile telecom operators (CMOs) have jointly sent a letter to State Bank of Pakistan requesting that its decision to abolish the DCB system for installation of dollar charges be reconsidered considering country’s ongoing liquidity issue.
Google administration for application downloads will cease to exist. A $34 million installment was past due, and if it was not paid, Google’s app store downloads would have had the data pulled from them. Government sources confirmed to our experts that this is in fact the case.
The four mobile operators submitted a joint letter to the government, stating that the telecom industry has made significant contributions to foreign direct investment in addition to paying other levies.
The digital economy in Pakistan heavily relies on foreign service providers. Cloud hosting, licensing for services or platforms, and increased security measures can all be very costly. Many times, a lack of technical expertise to upskill the local workforce is what keeps new businesses from growing.
Non-payment from customers is hurting all major players, including Google, Amazon, and Meta. These companies use satellite signals for internet connectivity and data broadcasting services, which could stop due to a lack of payment. This means that people will not be able to satisfy their needs from digital platforms like banking, e-commerce, and education that are required for working with cloud infrastructure.
Telecom is essential for Pakistan’s digital transformation. Although the country needs to do much more, it’s already made strides in recent years. Many private and public stakeholders are involved in the process of transforming Pakistan into a global digital leader.
The lack of distributions support and interest from large players like Google, Amazon, and Apple representing Facebook will make it difficult to sell their digital platforms. This will impact companies, services, and goods beyond the digital sphere. Digital marketing is currently the most influential way to market businesses.
“Any potential outage of such digital services due to non-payments would create a lot of negativity in the world about Pakistan in this age of social media and should be avoided at any cost,” the letter stated.
“It is pertinent to mention here that we all understand the prevailing economic challenges of our country,” the letter said. “Thus, we are open to working in an amicable way with the Regulator (SBP) on whatever may be necessary. As we are already dealing with their requests related to import transactions in our sector, we also believe that a collaborative approach would be most beneficial for all parties.”