ISLAMABAD: Amid admission of upgrading National Firewall System (NFS) in the country to monitor social media, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General Hafeez ur Rehman (retired) said that internet services were affected due to a fault in the submarine cable.
“We have received a letter from Submarine Consortium which stated that the fault would be resolved by August 27”, said PTA chairman while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, which met with Amin ul Haque in the chair here on Wednesday.
Responding to a question regarding losses, the PTA chairman said that Rs300 million loss were incurred by the telecom sector, but it does not included the IT sector.
Member Telecom said that most of the IT sector is undocumented and it is yet to be verified how much loss was incurred in the IT sector.
The PTA chairman said that firewall is up graded for the third time in the country for which approval was given in March 2019, but due to financial issues it was not upgraded.
The PTA chairman explained that a fault in one of the submarine cables has affected the internet in Pakistan. “Seven fibre optic cables connect Pakistan internationally; one of them is currently down. The consortium responsible for the cable has indicated that repairs should be completed by August 27,” he said.
“7.5 terabytes of data flow through this cable, and its outage has significantly affected internet services,” he claimed. He added that the situation has led to slowed local internet services, especially for users relying on VPNs.
Discussing the internet disruptions further, committee members pressed the PTA chairman on why VPNs have become a necessity for users. Rehman explained that some data, not available on local content delivery networks (CDNs), becomes accessible via VPNs, thus, leading to increased reliance on them during such outages.
Questions were also raised about whether other countries are facing similar submarine cable issues. The PTA chairman said, “It’s Pakistan’s submarine cable that’s affected, not others.”
Concerns over the legal standing of VPN usage were brought up, to which chairman PTA said that they are registering VPN and not blocking it. He further went on to elaborate on the complexities of monitoring online content, stating, “While Article 19 guarantees freedom of expression, there are five or six categories to consider when enforcing restrictions. Each country has its system in place, and when the government issues directives to block certain content, we have to comply.”
Commenting on privacy concerns regarding firewall, Gen Rehman told the NA committee that social media platforms were end-to-end encrypted and there was no technology to access encrypted information.
Speaking on the government’s decision to white list VPNs, the PTA chief said VPNs were not being banned or shutdown but in fact the companies have only been asked to register themselves.“VPNs are not blocked in the world [as] it affects businesses,” he added.
The session took a critical turn when PTCL’s CEO failed to attend, prompting frustration from committee members. Omar Ayub noted that he had postponed a court hearing to attend, underscoring the significance of the issue at hand.
Committee Chairman Amin ul Haq issued a directive to summon PTCL’s CEO to the next session to explain the absence.
The PTA has blocked the access to X (Twitter) in pursuance to Ministry of Interior (Mol) directions dated 17 February 2024 in accordance with Rule 5(7)(ii) of the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, Safeguard) Rules 2021.
The PTA chairman said that 562 MHz of spectrum will be offered for auction while currently the overall total spectrum is 275 MHz being used by all operators. He said the 5G auction is expected by April 2025 in the country. Committee chairman recommended for best market prices for the auction. Haque also recommended not linking the price with dollar.
The PTA is actively working to attract new companies to participate in the auction and aiming to expand the market and enhance competition, he added. The chairman also noted that Saudi Arabia sold its spectrum at $90,000 per megahertz, while Pakistan previously sold 4G spectrum at $29 million per megahertz. The aim is to keep the cost of spectrum low to benefit local consumers, he stated.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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