ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s internet service providers are losing more than a million dollars on a daily basis since the country’s telecommunications regulator has blocked their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to curb grey telephony, industry giants said on Wednesday.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) recently installed a web management system (WMS) to identify and block any online content classified as unlawful under local laws.
The authority has directed all internet service providers to get their IP addresses whitelisted to continue their services uninterrupted. However, industry giants have termed the authority’s process as “cumbersome, bureaucratic and time-consuming.”
“This new [PTA] regulation has affected around 400 companies and their businesses, and more than 10,000 employees,” Wahaj-us-Siraj of the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK) told Arab News on Wednesday.
The association is a private body of 25 broadband service providers in Islamabad, and it has demanded a suspension of the IP blocking instruction for at least three months in a letter to the PTA.
“The PTA takes at least fifteen days to process a company’s whitelisting request … It is unthinkable that any business in the fast-paced world of IT can wait for that long,” he said.
“Our international customers are cancelling their orders and turning to India and Bangladesh … This is costing us over a million dollars per day,” he added.
The companies which are affected by the new regulations include call centers, IT firms, and information technology enabled services and software houses. These companies cannot use video conferencing, virtual private networks (VPNs) and Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIPs), which they routinely employ otherwise to interact with their clients, until their IPs are white-listed.
The association of internet service providers has urged the PTA to create an online portal to process and approve IP address-related requests within 60 minutes.
“In the current situation when Pakistan fights the corona pandemic and countries are enforcing work from home …. PTA is working backwards to block IP addresses to protect certain interest groups,” said the ISPAK letter to the PTA.
The authority, on the other hand, maintained that all education institutes and online businesses can use “legal” VoIP, VPN and video conferencing applications to continue their online activities without any restrictions.
All legal VoIP, VPN and video conferencing apps, such as WhatsApp, Skype, Google Meets, Zoom, Blue Jeans, Cisco WebEx, Team Viewer, Meraki VPN, are available to be used for virtual education and business, the PTA said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The PTA is only taking action against those [who are illegally] using VoIPs and VPNs which causes losses to the national exchequer,” Khurram Ali Mehran, spokesman for the PTA, told Arab News.
He also refuted the internet service providers’ claim that the PTA was taking at least fifteen days to process their whitelisting applications.
“Currently IPs are being whitelisted within 24 hours from applying for the same,” Mehran said. “Applicants have been asked to apply immediately for whitelisting even if all documents are not ready and they can provide the documents later.”
Pakistan's internet service providers flay PTA over IP whitelisting process
https://arab.news/w5aj9
Pakistan's internet service providers flay PTA over IP whitelisting process
- Say the government’s decision to block IP addresses has affected around 400 companies and their businesses
- PTA claims it is taking action against companies to curb grey telephony
Pakistan, seven Muslim nations back Palestinian technocratic body, stress Gaza-West Bank unity
- The National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip was announced on January 14
- Muslim nations call for consolidation of the ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and seven other Muslim-majority countries on Thursday welcomed the formation of a temporary Palestinian technocratic body to administer Gaza, stressing that it must manage daily civilian affairs while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank amid the ongoing peace efforts.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Türkiye, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates said the newly announced National Committee for the Administration of the Gaza Strip would play a central role during the second phase of a broader peace plan aimed at ending the war and paving the way for Palestinian self-governance.
“The Ministers emphasize the importance of the National Committee commencing its duties in managing the day-to-day affairs of the people of Gaza, while preserving the institutional and territorial link between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, ensuring the unity of Gaza, and rejecting any attempts to divide it,” the statement said.
The committee, announced on Jan. 14, is a temporary transitional body established under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 and is to operate in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, the ministers said.
The statement said the move forms part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan for Gaza, which the ministers said they supported, praising Trump’s efforts to end the war, ensure the withdrawal of Israeli forces and prevent the annexation of the occupied West Bank.
The top leaders of all eight Muslim countries attended a meeting with Trump in New York last September, shortly before he unveiled the Gaza peace plan.
The ministers also called for the consolidation of the ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza, early recovery and reconstruction and the eventual return of the Palestinian Authority to administer the territory, leading to a just and sustainable peace based on UN resolutions and a two-state solution on pre-1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
