ISLAMABAD – Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati on Fridayapprised the Senate that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) hasneither signed any contract for monitoring of Internet Traffic with anyvendor nor was spending public money on the project.
Replying to a question during Question Hour, the minister said that incompliance to statutory and Policy obligations, PTA directed telecomindustry to deploy a suitable technical solution capable of monitoring,analyzing and curbing grey traffic.
The said monitoring system would be termed as ‘Web Monitoring System(WMS)’. The contract was signed between relevant telecom operators and thevendor without involvement of public money, he said.
All LDIs (Long Distance and International), CMOs (Cellular MobileOperators) and Submarine Cable Landing Station licensees were sharing thecost of the system under their regulatory obligations, he said.
The minister said for addressing security concerns, PTA has obtainedundertaking from the vendor (Inbox Business Technologies) and manufacturercompany Sandvine Inc., USA for any possible involvement of hostile element.
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The vendor was also obligated to get the system certified as per ISO 27001international standards. Moreover, security agency has been involved toconduct security audit of the system to find out any loop holes andvulnerabilities in the system he said.
He said to further ensure the security, a strict clause about system andmaterial breach was included in the contract. In case, any such breach wasidentified and validated, contract would be terminated.To another question, the minister said that PTA along with FrequencyAllocation Board (FAB) checked the Power Level of Base TransreceiverStation (BTS) (Towers) in accordance with regulations. So far, 5 surveyshad been conducted in 36 cities wherein power level of 2,429 BTS (towers)had been checked.—APP
