More PTA idiot mode activity
Here is a Press Release from the PTA. I will attempt to analyse it below. Read on!

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http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=35307

PTA conducts raids on solid evidence

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said on Tuesday it has always encouraged both local and foreign investors to invest in the telecom related business and facilitated them in every possible manner.

“Besides, it is evident from the facts and figures of telecom sector that PTA has always encouraged both local and foreign investors to invest in the telecom related business and facilitated them in every possible manner,” said a PTA statement on Tuesday.

It said the PTA always conducted raids against illegal operations on solid evidence and through monitoring of the suspected facility as per law.

“The voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is a licensed service and not an illegal activity but to run such a facility, a company has to acquire a license from PTA,” it added.

Referring to the latest raid against Cogilent Solutions -an IT firm in Islamabad - the PTA said it was running VoIP without a valid license from PTA.

“The bandwidth provided to the company was for data purposes only as written in the agreement which a DSL customer signs upon taking a connection. In contrast, it was being used for VoIP,” added the statement.

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First of all lets be clear that using VoIP is not illegal, does not need a licence. It is a technology not a service. The legality of using this technology is clear from PTA determination Dir(LE)/45-1/VOIP/Coord/PTA dated 16 November 2002 that clearly and specifically allows use of VoIP.

No where in the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Ordinance 1996 is the term VoIP used or mentioned.

What is illegal, without a licence, is providing a "BASIC TELEPHONE SERVICE". This usually means termination, which requires setting up of an exchange to route calls to licenced service provider numbers. Cogilent has 4 PTCL lines, no equipment for terminating to GSM or CDMA networks. So no termination in the traditional meaning of the word.

It appears that what Cogilent was doing was using their data link to make VoIP calls between its Islamabad and USA offices. The PTA sometimes thinks that this is illegal.

In any case if a customer signs an agreement with its DSL provider not to use VoIP over that DSL connection then at most this would be grounds for a civil case between the ISP and the customer. For the FIA goons to be involved on the basis of this is ridiculous and illegal.

Labels: gorement, idiots

- posted @ Wednesday, December 13, 2006