A parliamentary panel was informed on Wednesday that about 70 percent telecom traffic was coming at the receiving end illegally due to non-upgradation of equipment in last two years as telecommunication sector was developing leaps and bounds globally.
The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was told that upgradation of equipment needed over $10 million, which will add $137 million per year to the income of the industry. Mohammed Yaseen, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) informed the committee that the existing monitoring system has the capacity to detect only limited voiceover internet protocol (VoIP) while the protocol is expanding continuously and with less monitoring capability, Pakistan is handicapped in this realm.
"Both legal and illegal telecom operators are involved in gray trafficking and even some wealthy and unscrupulous elements have installed the equipment at their private places," he maintained. Due to limitations, he added, the current monitoring system has a capability of checking only 30 percent of international voice traffic while 70 percent go through without any check, which is very harmful and also depriving the country of millions of dollars which could be earned easily if Pakistan updates its monitoring system according to global standards.
"When the authority [PTA] started taking action against gray trafficking, even some legal operators got annoyed and refused to upgrade their monitoring system, which is financial as well as security breach", he added. Yaseen went on saying that there is no other option but the operators have to upgrade the monitoring system every year. In 2009 and 2010, he said, the system was not upgraded according to the international standards which resulted in heavy gray trafficking amounting to 70 percent along with heavy loss to the national kitty.
He informed the panel that Access Promotion Contribution (APC) of over Rs 64 billion per year is deposited to Universal Services Fund (USF) account, and it is the duty of the ministry of information technology to upgrade the system through the fund. Meanwhile, secretary IT informed the committee that about six telecom companies went against the imposition of APC and were making the contribution to the fund, which is in litigation. The PTA also introduced reduction in APC rate from 5 percent to 2.75 last year, which increased legal traffic by 25 to 30 percent.
The PTA chairman claimed that the APC regime is confusing and under it some operator got profit while others remained in losses. He suggested that its rate should be flat so that disparity should be removed. Yaseen said that up gradation of equipment is needed on monthly basis to ensure plugging of gray telecom traffic.
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