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'SAMENA Daily' - News

PTA busts two illegal gateway exchanges

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has busted two illegal gateway exchanges in Lahore and Karachi.  According to a handout issued on Wednesday, both the raids against the grey operators were carried out along with FIA teams.

At Lahore, an illegal exchange comprising two gateways, multiple ports and three wimax devices were confiscated, while one person was arrested during the raid.

In the second raid, an illegal exchange comprising four gateways, multiple ports, one laptop, three desktops, five LAN switches, two EVO, four modems and hundreds of SIMs were confiscated in Karachi.
Two persons were also arrested and handed over to FIA for further interrogation.

Grey traffic is the use of illegal exchanges for making international calls, bypassing the legal routes and exchanges in which the government loses revenue.

In order to stop the illegal business, FIA monitors all incoming calls. The calls were monitored using technology followed by physical raids that came after ascertaining illegal exchanges.

According to PTA officials, sophisticated equipment has been in place since October 2013 to stop all international calls coming into the country through illegal telephone exchanges.

In June 2014, after approval from the prime minister, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications abolished the international clearing house (ICH) mechanism.

The move was for both long distance international operators, including mobile telecom companies, with an objective to reduce grey trafficking to a minimum 10 per cent if not completely eradicated because there would be no financial attraction when taxes were eliminated on the incoming international calls.



Source: http://nation.com.pk/national/26-Feb-2015/pta-busts-two-illegal-gateway-exchanges

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