PTA blocks 50,000 telephone connections to curb gray traffic

Official says monitoring system nearly defunct now.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has so far blocked around 290,000 telephone connections involvement in gray traffic. Over 50,000 connections were blocked after October 2012 alone, as part of non-system activities presently being carried out by the authority.

An official source told APP on Tuesday that the PTA employs a technical system that monitors international telephone traffic. The system became operational in May 2008 and was expanded in early 2009. He said the aim of the system, installed with funding from long distance international (LDI) operators, was to monitor all international voice traffic terminating in Pakistan for identification of illegal channels employed by grey operators.

The system has been used to carry out actions against gray telephony, which also include raids. The official said a total of 66 joint raids were conducted with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) across the country during the last four years. Around 57 persons, including six foreigners, were apprehended during the raids, and illegal gateway equipment confiscated. In some cases, the PTA also identified involvement of its own licensees in gray telephony, and recovered Rs1.32 billion, including Rs702.5 million in fines and Rs614.4 million in recoveries.

The other step taken was reduction in the APC to 1.25 cents, which eliminated gray operators’ margins. The reduction greatly reduced the volume of gray traffic and legal LDI traffic increased from 700 million to over two billion per month.

The official said that the monitoring system needed to be upgraded within 90 days by the LDI consortium for curbing gray traffic as per a government directive.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2013.

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