It was in May-June 1998, when Government and PTCL decided to implement multi metering of local calls. Before that, local calls were charged un-metered at cost of one call regardless of their duration. Internet which was in infancy during those days was threatened by this move. ISPAK launched a mass awareness campaign and convinced the Government authorities not to put this additional burden on the Internet users. So PTCL went ahead with the voice call multi-metering (one call to be charged after every five minutes) but upon Government directions announced in the Budget 1998-99, Internet calls were exempted from multi-metering. PTCL within 15 days implemented a new hunt group system for all ISPs starting with 131 xxxxx on which local calls were not metered. This decision acted as a major catalyst in growth of the Internet in Pakistan in subsequent years.
