KARACHI, Oct 14: Much to the consternation of the 112 Internet service providers in the country, the Pakistan Telecommunication Company has closed down the MSN voice chat channel.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that the phone utility had clamped down on non-PTCL means of communication in its attempt to earn more revenue. They added that communication through the Internet was far cheaper than the communication through the PTCL infrastructure.
Last week the PTCL brought down its international call rates. For Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey the international call has been brought down to Rs25 per minutes. For some other countries, such as the United Arab Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Russia, the international call rate has been decreased to Rs39 per minute.
The sources said that the PTCL lowered the international call rates to lure the customers who would not be able to communicate through the Internet anymore.
When contacted, the secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (Ispak), V.A. Abidi, told Dawn that revenue generation of the 112 Internet service providers had been adversely affected by this step of the the phone utility which had been authorized to do so by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.
He recalled that at the time of the establishment of the Pakistan Internet Exchange — which was another name for the much-dreaded National Access Point — the ministry of science and technology had promised that the exchange would not be employed for Internet gagging.
“When an Internet user speaks to his friend or relative in North America, he uses the Internet longer than he would if he were using it for another purpose. Similarly those who do not know how to use the Internet, also use MSN voice chat channel to talk to their near and dear ones abroad. If previously an average user employed the Internet for two and a half hours every day, he is now using it for half an hour,” he explained.
Earlier this year, the telecoms regulator put a stop to Internet to phone communication by banning at least 17 websites through which calls could be made to North America bypassing the PTCL.
PTCL officials argued that under the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act 1996 basic telephone services were the prerogative of the phone utility.
The Act declares that “basic telephone services” means the provision of any telecommunication service which consists of two- way live voice telephone service in digital form or otherwise over any fixed switched network or between base stations or switches or modes of any public mobile switched network; real- time transmission or reception of facsimile images over a public fixed switched network; international telephony service; and the lease of circuits for the provisions of the services specified.”
