Pakistani ISPs told to monitor customers’ activities and keep records
The Pakistan Tele-communications Authority (PTA) has asked the Internet service providers to monitor customers’ activities and keep their personal record, putting operators in a fix, who are concerned about the fresh orders.
In a recent letter to over 50 ISPs, the vigilance cell of the PTA has demanded of the operators to keep their clients’ record valid and updated for purpose of hiring the bandwidth. “The rapid growth of the telecom sector has resulted in positive economic activity in the country,” said the letter while justifying the policy for the ISPs.
“There are, however, some unscrupulous elements, indulging in illegal commercial activity of establishing exchanges for terminating international calls in the local networks of licensed operators. The media used for this illegal activity is mostly unlicensed VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). There is an urgent need to eliminate the menace of such like illegal activities of grey market telephony.”
The PTA said the purpose to monitor ISPs subscribers’ activity and keep their record was to remove leakages, to put maximum restrictions on illegal business operations and protect interest of the licensed operators.
