KARACHI, July 30: Pakistan Telecommunications Company and Pakistan Telecommunications Authority officials have raided an office of a wire service and seized the apparatuses meant for illegally using voice mail, bypassing the PTCL’s gateway exchange.

A spokesman for the PTCL said PTA Director Mushtaq Bhatti and officials of the PTCL’s vigilance team had put under observation the South-Asian Media-Wise (SAMW) online service for the last ten days. They noted that the wire service was using PRI lines of 120K bandwidth after having placed an A53,000 voice card in their Sisco Access Server.

The service had obtained four PRI lines from the PTCL and a PRI line had 30 telephone lines. All lines could be used simultaneously, he added.

He said SAMW was issued a licence of Fax Forwarding but they made a joint venture with Webnet, which was also a Fax Forwarding licence holder of the PTA, but it did not have licence for voice transfer.

He said during the observation, it was noted that SAMW had received 150,000 calls in the past 10 days, causing a loss of Rs10 million to the government.

The spokesman said a raid was conducted at the SAMW’s office (room 714) in the Progressive Plaza near the PIDC House.

At the time of the raid, SAMW’S directors M.I. Hasan and Ishtiaq fled. The raiding team seized all the apparatuses and equipment.

He said an estimated loss was being calculated after which an FIR would be lodged against the directors and the head of SAMW. He said under the Telecom Act a violator could get up to two years in jail and Rs10 million in fine.