Tech Readers » PTA

Under Repair – The SEA-ME-WE-4 Cable

Bilal Akram — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:55:47 +0000

The cable that holds a major importance in the Internet backbone service is the ‘SEA-ME-WE-4’. This cable will be under repair for the next three days. News item from business recorder gives more details.

The SEAMEWE-4 Consortium has stated that their submarine cable system suffered a fault near Italy on April 14. The Consortium has planned to carry out repair operation of the faulty segment on precedence and the cable repair ship has been organized for this purpose. The repair ship is scheduled to arrive at the fault site on April 18 and repair work will be initiated at 12 pm (PST) same day.

During this repair work, western section of the Cable System beyond Alexandria (Egypt) will remain out of service for approximately 3 to 4 days. According to a PTCL spokesperson, every step is being taken to reduce the impact of this outage on its customers through its alternate cable system SEA-ME-WE-3 and the Eastern Segment of SEA-ME-WE-4 which are in full working condition.

What is DSL? And a Contrast Between DSL & Cable?

PTA Fined Ufone 150 Million Rupees For Violating 789 SOP

Tasadduq Bashir — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:05:40 +0000

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has fined Rs. 150 Million to Ufone for violating terms and conditions.

According to the Authority, every telecom company is required to follow a verification procedure before issuing or activating any SIM. Note that this verification is carried out on the basis of data provided by NADRA.

Ufone has been alleged of selling a SIM without acting in accordance to the rules, therefore, clearly violating and refusing to acknowledge the rules implemented by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. PTA considers this mistake a threat to national security measures taken by the Federal Government.

Ufone responded to the case saying that above said SIM was sold in accordance to the rules. 789 Standard Operating Procedure was followed in issuance of the said SIM. Having said that, they claim to have blocked the SIM on 24^th December 2009, which is a little strange. If the SIM was issued according to the rules, then why blocked it? It turned out to be a mistake of Ufone Call center agent in the end.

Ufone’s second response, which was submitted on 4th February 2010, said that it was a mistake of 789-call center agent.

Whole story goes like this:

Records show that call center agent followed the SOP and asked important questions like CNIC number, customer’s name, mother’s name, place of birth and father’s name. Customer answered all questions except Mother’s name. Call center agent neglected the wrong answer thus activated the SIM. Agent responsible for the mistake has been suspended for ignoring the guidelines.

Announced on 26th February 2010, Ufone has been fined Rs. 150,000,000/- (150 Million) for not following the SOP and is asked to pay the above-mentioned amount within one month from the date of issuance of the instant enforcement order.

PTA Might Ban Chinese Handsets Without IMEI

Tech Readers — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:14:30 +0000

Sources say that the Chinese handsets that come with no IMEI or with dummy IMEI will be blocked by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). Preliminary work has commenced on the analysis of the handsets but no confirmation of the timeline as of now. Some smaller phone manufacturing companies in China cut cost by skipping IMEI programming stage, meaning not all phones from china come without the IMEI.

Calls made from handsets without IMEI makes it difficult and impossible to prove the person who made the call, who received the specific phone calls as they cannot be traced by the cellular companies , this makes the Handsets without IMEI a threat to the national security as they are used in the illegal work.

Recently, India blocked 25 million handsets that were without IMEI. Pakistani cellular companies are considering offering re-programming of the Chinese handsets just like India. In the re programming, the IMEI number is embedded in a mobile phone to give it legal status. Chinese handsets are a source of headache for mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung and many others therefore this movement is supported by the handset Manufacturers. Chinese handsets have penetrated the Pakistani market and other markets thus impacting significantly on the sales of the branded phones.

668 SIM Confirmation System Now Mobile

Tech Readers — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:36:39 +0000

The main aim of the 668 SIM Information campaign is to withdraw the unauthorised registered SIMs. PTA is available on mobile via SMS and this is the reason it has stepped forward.

You can only send your CNIC number if you wish to know if the SIM is registered against the CNIC. Their CNIC number should be sent without any space or any dash to 668 and they will get a reply which has details of name service provider and also the number of the SIM. Through these steps the PTA is showing how serious it is on eliminating the SIMs that are unauthorised. The customers should check on their Sims especially those that have not checked and in case of any discrepancy they should visit the nearest concerned service center and get it fixed.

By E.N

Keep Track of SIMs Issued Against Your CNIC – PTA SIM Information System

Tech Readers — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:59:11 +0000

A while ago Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) launched SIM Information System on PTA official website i.e. pta.gov.pk but soon disabled the feature on web due to heavy traffic or whatever reason. The system helps individuals to keep track of SIMs issued against their Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) number. Though, the system doesn’t tell you the numbers, Mobile Operators do not either, but it tells you the amount of SIMs issued against your CNIC. You can then go to the respective Mobile Operator’s Help Center and block all illegal numbers.

You can also get this information on your mobile by sending your CNIC Number in this format: 12345-1234567-8 to 668. This is quite helpful free service offered by PTA and if used in a proper manner, it can help a lot. Be careful, any ‘extra’ SIM issued on your CNIC number can be used for illegal purposes and ultimately you will have to face the music.

Official URL: http://pta.gov.pk/668/

Mobile Subscribers Increased to 95.5 Million [PTA Report July 2009]

Tech Readers — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:22:33 +0000

Teledensity reached 62.3 percent of the country in July this year, nearly 110bps higher than the previous month, according to data published by the Telecommunications Authority of Pakistan (ATP). Cell sector trended respectable with a penetration rate of 58.50 percent. On the other hand, wireless local loop (WLL) and burglaries remained stable at 2.2 percent and 1.6 percent to a standstill, respectively.

Collective basis, wire line (fixed + WLL) penetration stood at 3.8 percent in July 2009.

In July 2009, the cell control section third straight month additions of one million monthly averages of 250,000 about nine months since July 2008. In July 2009, the total number of mobile subscribers increased by 95.55 million.

Based on market leader Mobilink separately with 29.5 million (31 percent) of participants remained in second place was secured followed by Telenor for EUR 21.3 million (22 percent), Ufone market share by 21 percent. Additions highest monthly figures are taken from Mobilink, with 414,000 new subscribers of Telenor and Warid followed with 406,000 and 255,000 new subscribers each.

WLL Section 35,000 new additions during the month and the total reached 2.65 million.

According to information obtained, the most important contribution in this regard was Worldcall with 13.000 additions to the customer base to over 0.56million Telecard 626.000 subscribers. PTCL huge market share has increased subscriber base of 1.31 million. Based on market share PTCL is the first in the segment with a market share of 49 percent, while the position of is succeeded Telecard and World call with almost 24 percent and 21 percent shares, respectively. In the fixed part of the line, all the participants in 9MFY09 decreased by 3.52 million subscribers compared to the level 202k of 3.72 million in 6MFY09.

PTA Seizes Illegal Gateway Exchange in Peshawar

Tech Readers — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:34:49 +0000

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is a network of illegal gateway exchange in Peshawar, caused a loss of billion rupees before the state budget for the last three months. According to a statement here Tuesday PTA, the telecom regulator and the Federal Investigation Agency National Response Center (NRC) Peshawar actions against the illegal network of three bridges and foreign scholarships were arrested.

The raid was based on information that facilitates the monitoring of PTA, which detects motion Gray won. It was found that illegal equipment installed three gates GSM with 97 cards SIM. PTA Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen appreciates the joint efforts of the PTA and the team IAF has provided guidelines for directors to PTA Zonal speed combats these illegal activities, conducting raids across the country.

PTA: Pakistan Hits 4 Million Internet Users

Tech Readers — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:30:31 +0000

Despite many new DSL/Broadband and WiMax operators, Pakistan still has to go through a long way in terms of Internet user base. The latest statistics posted by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) shows a very sligh growth of DSL users. There is only 2 percent growth in Direct Subscriber Line (DSL) during January to March 2009. The total number of DSL subscribers in Pakistan is 272,626. People are still focusing on Dial up Internet and Dial Up internet user base stood consistent at 3.7 million. Though there is no growth in this number but still its over 90 percent of total Internet Users in Pakistan.

It is expected that the number of DSL, WiMax users will increase this year because of many new entrants and low price packages offered by Internet Operators. According to 2008 statistics, DSL holds the major share of 59 percent and WiMax stood at 20 percent market share and the number is growing fast. It is also estimated the the number of broadband users within 2 years will reach 5 million.

Tech Readers » PTA

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