Google Play Service is Shutting Down

 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has discontinued the direct carrier billing (DCB) system, which means that Google Play Store services will no longer be available to Pakistani users after December 1.

Users will not be required to use their bank cards to access the services, and many will be unable to download apps from the Google Play Store due to credit card restrictions.

The Telecom Ministry, the PTA, and cellular service providers have petitioned the SBP to request that the measure be reversed since it will cause customer problems.

According to top official sources, Google services such as app downloads would be inaccessible. They informed appropriate authorities that the outstanding payment of $34 million was due and that their services for downloading Google App Store would be discontinued if the outstanding money was not cleared.

In a joint letter to the government, the four mobile operators stated that in addition to other significant contributions in the form of tax, duties, and other levies, the telecom industry is one of the largest contributors to foreign direct investment.

It is impossible to ignore the telecom industry's contribution to expanding Digital Pakistan's agenda. Because it is intended to benefit all social and economic sectors, Pakistan's digital transformation requires participation and facilitation from all stakeholders.

Due to non-instalment, the enormous players as a whole, including Google, Amazon, and Meta, are enduring and are probably going to quit offering their types of assistance. The outcome will be that telecom and web clients will not have the option to fulfil their necessities from advanced stages like computerized banking, internet business, e-training, and well-being that utilise cloud framework and require licenses for the two applications and online stages that are seriously affected.

Selling digital platforms will be extremely challenging due to the lack of distribution support and interest from Facebook-representing market players like Google, Amazon, and Apple. As a result, businesses, products, and services outside of the digital sphere will be affected. At the moment, digital marketing is the most efficient method for all businesses, goods, and services.

“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,” stated the letter.

The letter concluded: “It is pertinent to mention here that we all understand the prevailing challenge of worsening economic conditions of the country and thus are open to working in an amicable way with the Regulator (SBP); as we are already working with them in case of the telecom sector imports related transactions to navigate through these testing times.”