[governance] ISPs, PTA lock horns over illegal VoIP

[Hakikur Rahman]

VoIP is also banned in Bangladesh! Despite, many efforts and 
propaganda the government failed to legalize it since last 15 years 
or so. Perhaps, there are reasons that only the government can 
explain. I was in one of the VoIP formulation (?) committee once, and 
the legalization issue was there.

Best regards,
Hakik

At 12:35 PM 6/19/2009, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>Why does your government make VoIP illegal to begin with? VoIP has 
>the ability to save internet and telecom users hundreds of dollars a 
>year. It is nothing more than a software application. I suppose the 
>politicians who support these bans are the same ones asking for 
>international development funds to combat the digital divide....
>
>--MM
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Fouad Bajwa [mailto:fouadbajwa at gmail.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 6:38 PM
> > To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> > Subject: [governance] ISPs, PTA lock horns over illegal VoIP
> >
> > ISPs in Pakistan resist regulator's attempts to impose
> > authoritarianism over the region's internet as follows:
> >
> > http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\06\18\story_18-6-
> > 2009_pg5_7
> > ISPs, PTA lock horns over illegal VoIP
> > By Muhammad Yasir
> >
> > KARACHI: The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) has asked Pakistan
> > Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to establish its own mechanism to
> > detect Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with their funds deposited
> > in various accounts.
> >
> > The Internet Services Providers of Pakistan (ISPAK) has played down
> > PTA directives asking them to set up expensive systems for the
> > detection and monitoring of illegal voices traffic available unlimited
> > on internet. Recently, the PTA asked ISPs to detect and monitor all
> > sorts of voice over traffic and internet protocols recently for the
> > safeguard of other telecommunication sector.
> >
> > ISPAK Convener Wahaj us Siraj said PTA has invested a huge amount of
> > operators' contribution for installation of such a facility and this
> > matter has to be tackled by PTA itself instead of passing on
> > additional burden on ISPs. He said the ISPs could install the VoIP
> > monitoring and mitigating facility if PTA provides funding for such a
> > facility as the industry is already in debt due to selling below the
> > costs and anti competitive practices. There are more than 50 ISPs
> > operating across the country. As per policy, they contributed 0.5
> > percent of their revenue to Universal Service Fund (USF); 0.1 percent
> > on the account of Research and Development and hundreds of thousands
> > of fee charges for renewal of licences. ISPs cannot take any action
> > against any customer doing illegal VoIP as they are lacking statutory
> > powers to do so, he said and added that if PTA informs of illegal
> > activity done by any customer to the concerned ISP, the ISPs' action
> > can only be limited to locking that customer's account and providing
> > customer details to PTA.
> >
> > ISPs also termed PTA's action of blocking the IP addresses on internet
> > gateways without any prior notification and evidence as insufficient.
> > They said they had been suffering badly, which has been brought to the
> > notice many times in recent past to the regulator.
> >
> > PTA has its automated blocking of IP addresses 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
> >
> > On the other hand, Chairman PTA Dr Muhammad Yaseen told Daily Times
> > that setting up of VoIP system is not a rocket science that could not
> > be done by ISPs without the assistance of authority.
> >
> > They only need to install software on their network to block illegal
> > traffic of voices, which they are reluctant to do, he said adding that
> > there are scores of culprits violating authority's law under the very
> > nose of ISPs. Dr Yaseen added that the authority has warned all the
> > ISPs again and it has decided to conduct massive operation against all
> > the illegal traffic users as per prescribed laws. He further said the
> > ISPs should cooperate with the authority to stop illegal practices
> > instead of supporting users' violating watchdog's laws.
> >
> > PTA announced publicly that all (registered) call centres should
> > provide their IP addresses to PSEB to make sure that their voice
> > traffic is not blocked. 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 Rs 100 million) have been saved on
> > monthly basis. Now these would be automatically blocked if any IP, not
> > authorised to carry voice is found doing so. Under the current policy,
> > only LDIs and international call centres are authorised to carry voice
> > across national boundaries.
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