Posted by: Aamir Attaa on October 5, 2008 at 3:05 PM
Interior Ministry has taken notice of increasing mobile snatching cases in country, especially in Karachi. Consequently, Interior Ministry Chief, Mr. Rehman Malik has directed police to shoot mobile snatchers at spot.
Daily Jang, citing interior ministry sources has reported that interior minister showed serious concerns over the issue while communicating with Inspector General Police Sindh. Mr. Malik passed orders to deploy special officials in all major markets and roads of Karachi with orders to shoot mobile phone snatchers without arresting them.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 25, 2008 at 6:01 PM
Senate’s standing committee on Interior has passed directives to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Ministry of IT and Telecom to finalize policy for taking away pre-active SIMs from the market, with-in two weeks.
A source familiar with the directives issued by Senate’s standing committee told that Government is very serious to tackle illegal SIM’s issue, especially after Marriott’s incident; Government is in no mood to leave any stone un-turned in order to make the country free of illegal SIMs.
Seriousness of Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior Talha Mehmood can be judged by his statement that he gave during today’s meeting, he said, “We are in state of War…” He said that PTA must come up with policy with in two weeks, so that all pre-active SIMs could be taken away from market at earliest. Senator Talha, linked various criminal activities with illegal SIMs, and he once again emphasized the need to taking severe actions against those who carry illegal SIMs.
Further reading on Illegal SIMs …
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 18, 2008 at 7:38 AM
There was a news in print media yesterday, that Police has been allowed to directly access cellular user’s information; this includes our incoming and outgoing call details and information regarding SMS that we send and receive. I am not sure if Police can also access the content of calls (voice tapes), as it was not explicitly mentioned in any of news report.
If we consider crime rate, then this decision is going to help Police Department in ultimately reaching the culprits in quick time and with better accuracy, hence better results. Use of cell phone is a must do thing that criminals follow, meaning that they leave a very sound proof behind for police to catch them in minimum time.
But on other hands, as we know more and more government departments are now allowed to access cellular data directly, our very personal information is at risk. I don’t want to point out any single department, but I tend to decide or feel that my cellular record could be more secure and in safe hands if it was allowed to access through one point or one department.
I do not fear that these government institutes will access my information; instead my main concern is that now more individuals from our society (who have close references –friends/family - in these government departments) may also access my private data very easily.
I want to conclude here that there should be very strict and breach-less system to ensure that our cell phone records are safe and inaccessible to any un-authorized personal. Also want to add that its universal law that there should be lesser number of direct accesses to anything to make it more secure.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 12, 2008 at 10:51 AM
We have previously discussed the sluggishness in telecom sector of Pakistan. We had concluded that heavy tax impositions on telecom services and equipment including handsets are major factors for decreasing growth rate of cellular subscribers. Along with, we also saw that foreign direct investments that come in Pakistan from telecom sector saw a significant decrement.
Dr. Yasin, Chairman PTA has also derived that this increment in taxes is seriously damaging telecom sector, in terms of growth, revenues and FDI coming into the country. In an Iftar party that was organized by PTA specifically for journalists, he said that authority has asked the government to reconsider the imposition of added taxes on telecom services.
Chairman summarized achievements of telecom sector and said that Pakistan was able to fetch US $ 5 Billion of foreign direct investment into country in last 4 years. Lately Pakistan telecom has witnessed tremendous growth while adding 2.1 million cellar users per month in year 2007-08, added Dr. Yasin.
He also discussed the challenges that are being faced by the sector, which includes overall slow economic trend in the country and decreasing value of Pakistani Rupee.
Via [Daily Jang]
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 12, 2008 at 10:14 AM
In current telecom scenario of Pakistan, innocent subscribers are feeling tremendous pressure and harassment with growing fraudulent activities using cellular communication. It is of common practice that an SMS message that contains information about lucky draw award is received by innocent subscribers who unconsciously reply to such message and losses his balance in return. Besides that some obnoxious calls from a deceiver invites subscriber to come to particular location for award of prize money which ends up in loss of hard earned money of those innocent subscribers.
In the past Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has taken several measures to cap Spam, Unsolicited and Obnoxious Calls and text messages. Until now authority had tried to aware telecom subscribers to report such activities to PTA’s complain resolution number or helpline of respective cellular companies, in order to take action against such callers/spammers.
Lately, PTA has been trying to block unwanted calls on cellular phones in a more organized manner. For the purpose authority gave a tender advertisement in papers, asking solution providers for installation of SPAM filtering devices.
PTA website has revealed about a meeting that was attended by PTA officials and representatives of cellular service providers, in order to identify the critical issues relating to spam, unsolicited and obnoxious calls. In the meeting unsolved spamming problems were discussed that are increasing due to mobile generated fraudulent activities.
Currently Mobilink is offering a service that allows its subscribers to filter SMS (Text Messages), while Ufone is also offering Ufone call block service.
PTA thinks that this is not enough, and there should be an industry standard in order to block such unwanted calls and text messages. For the purpose, PTA also held a meeting with Tekelec (that provided SMS filtering services to Mobilink) to discuss possible solutions for the problem.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, after a deep look into the matter may direct all cellular companies to install such equipment that will filter all unwanted calls for cellular users.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 10, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Long Distance and International (LDI) operators have agreed to set up a system jointly at PTA for Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic (RITT).
This decision was taken in a meeting held at PTA Head Quarters, presided over by Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen.
It was decided that the funding of Phase 1(a) of the RITT System would be done based upon the 
International incoming traffic share of each LDI for the months of April, May and June, 2008.
The funding of subsequent phases would be done by calculating running average of international incoming traffic starting from April, 2008 and extending up to the month when the share is being calculated for new contract.
It was said in the meeting that Monitoring & Reconciliation of International Telephony Traffic Regulations were sent to all stake-holders for their inputs. The regulations were finalized after incorporating the received comments and were approved by the all LDI operators.
The Letter of Intent (LoI) for the expansion project of technical facility to curb grey telephony would be issued by PTCL being the consortium head. The contract for the project would be signed by PTCL or jointly by all LDI operators whichever is decided amongst themselves.
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 8, 2008 at 6:49 PM
Federal Board of Revenue has directed the member Direct Taxes to start recovery of income tax from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, which values Rs. 9 billion in amount, in response to what FBR had communicated PTA to pay their taxes by August 27, 2008, failing which besides imposition of penalty of u/s 183 additional taxes would also be charged at 12 percent per annum, furthermore FBR believed that tax amount will be recovered by adopting all recovery measures as warranted by Income Tax Law.
It was told by a high level official at FBR that PTA is not paying its taxes for last 10 years, and that the tax amount has reached Rs. 9 billion during this time period. The case has been re-opened after it was settled last year when PTA had paid Rs. 1 billion as an installment, but afterwards telecom authority is using delaying tactics to avoid paying taxes, added FBR sources.
When contacted FBR official, who is responsible to tackle PTA’s case, told us that telecom authority is claiming exception which is not due at all; FBR official further said that exemption from tax is not available to government authorities as it was withdrawn by virtue of overriding provision of section 54 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
FBR Officer further told that PTA has been delaying this payment for more than 10 years now. “Limit is limit; we can’t send them notices anymore. FBR may direct Telecom companies to submit their license fee directly to FBR if PTA will keep on delaying this tax amount”, concluded FBR official.
When contacted a PTA official, he refused to comment any thing on the issue, as he believed that the matter is both in High Court and Appellate Tribunals, and must not be commented until it is not decided.
Financial analysts suggest that PTA must give this tax, as all other government authorities are paying their taxes to FBR. The amount has to reach our national treasury… Either PTA pays it directly or it goes through FBR, then why not to follow the rule…?
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Posted by: Aamir Attaa on September 7, 2008 at 10:50 AM
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has decided to take conclusive measures against PTCL, in case they fail to resolve “Pakistan Package” issue with the authority and other LDI/LL companies in the country.
High level industry sources have revealed that PTA has decided to take severe and conclusive measures against PTCL that has not withdrawn Pakistan Package, despite repetitive directives from the authority.
Sources said that PTCL’s Pakistan Package had raised serious concerns for LDI/LL operators of the country, who have requested Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to play its role in detaining PTCL from continuing its free nation wide calling package, as it is causing them serious losses to their businesses. In response to which authority has directed PTCL to have meeting with LDI/LL operators to get their consent on Pakistan Package within 10 days, other wise authority will have to take decision to hold up the continuity of Pakistan Package.
On an additional note, PTCL launched other packages such as “Phone N Net” and “International Plus Packages” without the approval of the PTA, told a source. On which PTA has warned landline giant to not to repeat this practice again. It maybe recalled that all telecom operators, especially Significant Market Players (SMP) must inform the authority prior to launch of any package.
It merits mentioning here that PTA had directed PTCL to quit Pakistan Package by August 31, 2008, but those directions were put on deaf ears by PTCL administration. Telecom analysts are unable to comprehend PTA’s defensive mode against PTCL, which has been repetitively violating PTA’s directives and apparently PTCL is bluntly ruling the Telecom Sector of Pakistan without any regulations.
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