Monitoring international calls, internet data: government to spend $20 million on ICH upgradation

Pakistan lacks the capacity to monitor incoming and outgoing international calls and voice, text communication on internet and blasphemous movies, hence the government has decided to upgrade the International Clearing House (ICH) at a cost of $20 million to meet the objective.
The ICH established on October 1, 2012 needs more equipment costing millions of dollars to upgrade the system, which will earn a sustained $800 million foreign exchange annually to the national exchequer, besides enabling the authorities to monitor voice, data, email and movies, sources in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said. An oversight committee, comprising members from Long Distance and International (LDIs) operators, PTA and security agencies, would monitor the process while all private companies would provide funds (nearly $20 million) for the installation of equipments, sources said.
The main objective of the ICH is to control grey traffic, which is resulting in $400-$500 million loss to the national exchequer per annum. However, the scope of the ICH has now been extended and it would help in identifying financial scams, cyber crimes by monitoring international incoming and outgoing calls along with voice and text communication on internet, sources maintained.
Another objective behind the idea of ICH is security concern, as intelligence and law enforcement agencies would be allowed to check the data monitored through ICH with the objective of tracing relevant information to curb crime and terrorist activities. Sources confirmed that the establishment of ICH resulted in increasing the rates of incoming calls from outside the country from 1.2 cent per minute to 8.8 cent per minute, including 5.9 cent and 2.9 cent share of LDI operators and government, respectively.
Three years ago calling rates from outside the country were 10 cents per minute which was bringing $600 million per annum however it resulted in a rising number of crime-related calls. To control grey traffic, the government slashed this rate to 1.2 cent per minute, but the move resulted in 13 cellular companies defaulting to the tune of Rs 20 billion.
Establishment of ICH will not only decrease the volume of grey traffic but will result in bringing $800 million per annum to the national exchequer, officials maintained.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) had issued a warning to the PTA, Ministry of Information and Technology (MoIT) and LDI for not taking any action in violation of competition Act 2010 in establishing ICH Exchange, otherwise legal proceedings would be initiated under the Competition Act against all concerned in case the proposed ICH Exchange is established. Despite the reservations of CCP, MoIT issued the policy directive on August 13, 2012 for the establishment of ICH. In this regard, PTA vide its letter dated August 23, 2012 invited PTCL and LDI operators to sign ICH agreement at PTA' premises on August 29, 2012, so that the said policy directive can be implemented in letter and spirit.
Sources in the Ministry of Interior said that the Minister strictly directed PTA to upgrade its existing system to ensure monitoring of all emails, telephone calls, different internet sites and other communications. The Ministry of Interior also constituted a team headed by Member (legal), Ministry of Information Technology (IT), Member (technical) PTA and Director FIA with the mandate to carry out round-the-clock monitoring of all internet sites and take remedial measures, sources said.