ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT ) The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has received the bids for the appointment of consultants and it has done their financial and technical evaluation.
A press release said a meeting of the Spectrum Auction Committee was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Finance Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar to review the progress made so far in the spectrum auction as well as the measures taken to curb grey traffic. Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif had constituted two separate committees to oversee spectrum auction and curb the grey traffic.
The PTA informed the committee that the entire process of auction of spectrum would conclude within the stipulated period of 139 days committed by the PTA. The consultant would bring on board all stakeholders, hold road shows and finalise information memorandum for the auction of spectrum license. In a follow up meeting pertaining to grey traffic, the PTA briefed the meeting on the measures taken to curb grey trafficking and its progress so far.
The Minister for Information technology Anusha Rehman briefed the meeting that there was enhanced visibility over voiceover internet protocol traversing over international gateways resulting in blocking of 230,000 suspected internet protocols.
Chairman PTA Dr. M.Ismail Shah informed that dozens of comprehensive grey trafficking cases were handled by PTA resulting in closing of illegal grey traffic business amounting to millions of rupees. The meeting was also informed that non-ICH bandwidth utilisation decreased significantly. It was also informed that rationalisation of white list by the PTA led to reduction in IP addresses from 51,000 to less than 9,000 IPs.
It was decided that the PTA should continue to eliminate grey traffic by engaging the public through awareness campaigns and technical interventions. Further, the PTA along with the Federal Investigation Agency has so far conducted 53 raids to curb grey traffic. The meeting approved a recommendation that all steps should be taken to eliminate grey traffic, including necessary policy interventions.