ProPakistani

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is now capable of automated blocking of Internet Protocol Addresses (IPs), that carry illegal voice traffic that is termination and/or origination of voice packets in a bid to check grey traffic flowing into the country, as reported in ‘The News’ PTA says that the facility will be operational within the next few days.

Paper says that PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen announced this during a meeting with the CEOs of major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) of the country.

Chairman requested all the Internet Service Providers to declare their IP addresses along-with the antecedents of their customers so that illegal telecom traffic could be monitored. It was emphasized that the operators should oversee their customers to make sure they are not involved in grey traffic termination. He sought the operators’ cooperation to stem the menace of grey telephony.

It merits mentioning here that PTA announced publicly that all (registered) call centers should provide their IP addresses to PSEB to make sure that their voice traffic is not blocked.

I am not sure if this system is capable of detecting voice packets sent by Yahoo, Skype, netmeeting etc… Hope these programmes would be allowed for home users.

Since the inception of technical facility in May 2008 at the PTA, the IP addresses found to be involved in illegal activities were being blocked manually and in the process, over 14 million minutes (worth around Rs100 million) have been saved on monthly basis. Now these would be automatically blocked if any IP, not authorized to carry voice, is found doing so. Under the current policy, only LDIs and international call centers are authorized to carry voice across national boundaries.