[Pakistan] PTA moves to stop use of Internet for phone

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

Dawn, Karachi
16 September 2002 

PTA moves to stop use of Internet for phone 

By Bahzad Alam Khan 

KARACHI, Sept 15: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the 
Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan are at loggerheads 
over the use of Internet to phone communications. 

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Sunday that the telecoms regulator 
had come to the rescue of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company 
whose revenue, a considerable portion of which was obtained through 
long-distance overseas calls made particularly to the United States, 
had been shrinking since the start of Internet to phone 
communications, which was referred to as Voice-Over Internet Protocol 
in the lexicon of information technology. 

They said the outgoing calls to the US during 1998 had been 16 
million minutes. 

"Last year, the outgoing calls to the US, taken by three carriers 
MCI, Sprint and At&T, plunged to 11 million minutes, thanks largely 
to the widespread use of Internet to phone communications." 

Sources in the PTA told Dawn on phone from Islamabad that the 
telecoms regulator had taken the decision in view of the complaint of 
the PTCL regarding loss of revenue due to an ever-growing use of 
Internet to phone communication. 

"While the PTA is doing its utmost to help the Internet service 
providers expand their business, it would not allow them to do what 
is illegal." 

A letter sent to all the Internet service providers by the PTA 
recently says: "All the ISPs are directed to ensure that voice 
communication using Net2Phone or any other prepaid card/equipment is 
not established through Internet and the same will be periodically 
checked by a licence enforcement wing through these complementary 
connections." 

In another official letter, the PTA forbade the Internet service 
providers to allow the 

websites through which telephone calls could be made to North America 
bypassing the PTCL. 

PTCL officials argued that under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-
organization) Act 1996 basic telephone services were the prerogative 
of the phone utility. 

The Act declares that "basic telephone services" means the provision 
of any telecommunication service which consists of two-way live voice 
telephone service in digital form or otherwise over any fixed 
switched network or between base stations or switches or modes of any 
public mobile switched network; real-time transmission or reception 
of facsimile images over a public fixed switched network; 
international telephony service; and the lease of circuits for the 
provisions of the services specified." 

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association of 
Pakistan said the PTCL and the PTA should make a distinction between 
basic telephony and data transfer. 

"While basic telephony is clearly a prerogative of the PTCL being a 
monopoly, it should have nothing to do with data transfer. 

"According to a clause of the US-based Federal Committee on 
Communications voice-over Internet protocol is considered data 
transfer and not basic telephony." 

The sources said the Pakistan Internet Exchange, which veritably 
served the purpose of the much-denounced National Access Point, could 
keep a watchful eye on the electronic data being sent in and out of 
the country. 

http://www.dawn.com/2002/09/16/nat33.htm