The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has banned the sale of Xiaomi smartphones in Pakistan for not adhering to country's telecom rules.
Confirming the news, PTA Spokesman Khurram Mehran told The Dawn that " Mi devices' have been banned as they are not following the country's rules and laws."
"All phone sets have to be type-approved by the PTA and Xiaomi has not received type-approval yet." he added.
Type-approval is a procedure that requires smartphone makers to submit their phone sets to the PTA, Mehran said.
PTA Spokesman Khurram Mehran confirmed to Dawn.com that 'Mi devices' had been banned, saying, "They are not following the country's rules and laws."
"All phone sets have to be type-approved by the PTA and Xiaomi has not received type-approval yet."
The company also issued a statement that PTA has barred them from selling and Marketing Mi device in the country.
“The PTA has demanded that XiaomiPK.com has to stop the sale/marketing of all Mi mobile devices… We want our customers and people around the country to understand the monopoly of some brands in the market,” the company said in a statement. However, the company did not say which monopoly it was referring to.
“We believe that the Pakistani market deserves to have fair competition but these events make us ponder that some competitors believe in grabbing the market through influence instead of competing on the basis of quality and service.”
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), in October 2014 Xiaomi was the third largest smartphone maker in the world, following Samsung and Apple Inc.
