PTA to Block IPs to Control Grey Traffic

[عام آدمی]

Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) in its continued efforts to curb grey traffic has blocked more than 200,000 Inernet Protocl (IP) addreses, 1382 mobile SIMs and 3160 phones/devices through their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers during last one month.

The grey monitoring system has been operational since early October 2013 and has the capability to automatically block those IPs which are not in the PTAs whitelist.

In this connection, a high level meeting was chaired by Chairman PTA to review the progress of grey traffic monitoring system.Furthermore, after the installation of Grey Traffic monitoring equipment, as per the directions of Grey Traffic Monitoring Committee, PTA has conducted an extensive audit of the whitelist IPs. Now whitelisting of IPs is being done after a very stringent check and a strict SOP has been made in this regard. As a result the IP whitelist has been rationalized and reduced from 51000 to 10,360.

In addition to this, PTA has launched a 24/7 complaint center. Complainants can lodge their complaints through email ( [email protected] ), toll free phone (080055055), fax (051-2878127) and free sms (668) wherein they can report numbers in case any local number appears when receiving an international call. Through this facility 1944 complaints have been received till date. The numbers reported are not only blocked, but are also analyzed for legal action.

In a recent case, grey traffic was detected by PTA and on further analysis it was established that a LDI (Long Distance and International) operator M/s Wise Communication (Pvt) Ltd. was involved in grey traffic. A joint raid was conducted by PTA and FIA and illegal terminating equipment was confiscated and culprits apprehended.As per initial estimates a total of 11 Million minutes per month were being illegally brought into Pakistan by Wise Communication (Pvt) Ltd. In another two successful raids conducted in Karachi, PTA along with FIA confiscated nine (09) gateways.
http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1892&Itemid=739

 

[lurker]

Piece of sh1t PTA. Always trying to control public access. Stupid Pakistani government or just plain stupid Pakistanis just hand over full control over to such corporations. That filtering equipment the PTA now has in possession, do you think they use that JUST to get surveillance of Grey Traffic? Hell no. They will use this for surveillance of ALL traffic. Congratulations guys the Government now has all eyes on the few million Pakistanis who access the internet.

Don't you love it? They invest billions of Rupees in surveillance equipment and infrastructure to monitor the public. But next to nothing is invested to monitor the government.

 

[NonStopLeo]

Piece of sh1t PTA. Always trying to control public access. Stupid Pakistani government or just plain stupid Pakistanis just hand over full control over to such corporations. That filtering equipment the PTA now has in possession, do you think they use that JUST to get surveillance of Grey Traffic? Hell no. They will use this for surveillance of ALL traffic. Congratulations guys the Government now has all eyes on the few million Pakistanis who access the internet.

Don't you love it? They invest billions of Rupees in surveillance equipment and infrastructure to monitor the public. But next to nothing is invested to monitor the government.

is Govt ka who haal hai k Pani ka nall nahi band karna aur pani ko rokny k liye agay deewarein khari karty jana hai

 

[عام آدمی]

بھائیو، حکومت کی نااہلیاں اپنی جگہ لیکن یہاں کوئی حکومت کو بھی تھوک لگا رہا ہے

اورسیز پاکستانی جب کال کرتے ہیں تو انکے گھر والوں کو کسی لوکل نمبر سے کال آتی ہے، چناچہ کوالٹی بہت خراب ہوتی ہے جبکہ قیمت پہلے سے بھی زیادہ

ہو سکتا ہے شکایت کرنے یا پکڑنے سے قیمت نہ سہی کوالٹی تو بہتر ہو جایے

 

[uetian]

Piece of sh1t PTA. Always trying to control public access. Stupid Pakistani government or just plain stupid Pakistanis just hand over full control over to such corporations. That filtering equipment the PTA now has in possession, do you think they use that JUST to get surveillance of Grey Traffic? Hell no. They will use this for surveillance of ALL traffic. Congratulations guys the Government now has all eyes on the few million Pakistanis who access the internet.

Don't you love it? They invest billions of Rupees in surveillance equipment and infrastructure to monitor the public. But next to nothing is invested to monitor the government.

Privacy ... (hmm)(hmm) .. those golden days are gone now,
even the most liberal states are reverting to conservative surveillance e.g. France, introducing this law (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24852978) (bigsmile)

 

[uetian]

BTW: this Grey telephony was costing the government 800millions/month = Rs. 9.6 billions per year
http://tribune.com.pk/story/588516/...-telephony-costs-public-purse-rs800m-a-month/

 

[uetian]

[h=1]PTA to spearhead ‘collective campaign’ to counter grey telephony[/h]http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/108-pakistan-top-news/144096-pta-to-spearhead-‘collective-campaign’-to-counter-grey-telephony-anusha.html

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecom Anusha Rehman Monday said that it is encouraging to note that the collective efforts made by all stakeholders in countering grey trafficking have resulted in eight per cent increase in white traffic.
The Minister was chairing a follow up meeting regarding monitoring of Grey Trafficking here, said a press release.
Minister said these efforts have saved millions of rupees to the Public Exchequer, however, there is a dire need for this "Collective Campaign" against grey telephony to be spearheaded by PTA and fully supported by Ministry of IT, ICH Consortium, Mobile Operators, Law Enforcement Agencies and most of all the general public, being the ultimate beneficiary of all the efforts, made by government.
During the meeting the participants were given a detailed briefing regarding the Grey Trafficking by the PTA's Acting Chairman, Dr. Ismail Shah who spoke in detail about the output of the equipment installed at PTA with the efforts of MoIT. He said that after installation of the equipment .02 million IP Addresses had been blocked.
The meeting was apprised that White listed IPs had been subject to a substantial rationalization of IPs and resultantly an estimated 40,000 IPs had been blacklisted, hence the figure in the list now appeared to be 10,360 IPs.
The participants were informed about the efforts made by the monitoring team and the resultant arrests of culprits and confiscations of illegal equipment and gateways during the presentation: It is worth mentioning here that merely one such set up was involved in about 11 million minutes per month of grey traffic. Moreover, recent strikes have effected the blocking of more than 200,000 unauthorized IP addresses by the system.
It was decided during the meeting that after consultation with Ministry of Information Technology, PTA will procure SIM Box detection Service to further strengthen the activities against grey traffic.
The State Minister emphasized on taking the general public in loop so that optimal outcomes might be attracted: In this regard it was decided that an extensive media campaign under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) banner would be run by PTA, using electronic media particularly, Mobile Companies will participate in generating SMS messages and proactive measures to engage public in curbing this menace of grey traffic. In view of the outcome of these measures, the ICH policy will accordingly be reviewed at the end of December.
Mr. Akhlaq A. Tarrar, Secretary IT, Mr. Azmat Ranjha, Additional Secretary IT, Dr. Ismail Shah, Acting Chairman PTA, CEOs and Senior Management of Mobile Operators and representatives from law enforcement agencies were also present on the occasion.