Showing posts with label PTA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTA. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
PTA ends PTCL’s Internet bandwidth monopoly
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178149
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has decided to allow the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and DSL operators to buy Internet bandwidth from backbone operators other than the PTCL, thus settling a two-year row of the ISPs versus the PTCL.
The ISPs have been complaining to the PTA to amend their DSL Interconnect Agreement with the PTCL signed a few years ago in which the ISPs were restricted to procure Internet bandwidth from the PTCL only. Since the telecom deregulation in 2004, new operators have laid their infrastructure nationally as well as internationally and two years back, second alternate backbone provider, the TWA, started its services in the country.
But the DSL operators, who are the major purchaser of Internet bandwidth, were restrained by their unilateral agreement with the PTCL not to buy bandwidth from any operator other than the PTCL. The ISPs have been complaining to the PTA time and again against this monopolistic and anti-competitive restriction that did not allow them to have redundancy and benefit of competitive prices from alternate operator.
The PTA, after a series of negotiations, has finally issued the minutes of the meeting held between the ISPAK (Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan) and the PTCL on 5th May 2009 in which it was decided that the ISPs will be free to buy Internet bandwidth from third party operators and would be allowed to link their optical fibre cable to one PTCL exchange per city. The PTA has also decided that the PTCL will not increase charges of its leased circuits used by the DSL operators for inter-exchange bandwidth only for the next year.
The PTA has reserved a judgment on settling the DSL wholesale and retail prices of the PTCL and committed to resolve this long outstanding issue within a month. Pakistan has come a long way from the early days of Internet in 1990s with only one submarine cable connecting the country with rest of the world. The country today has three submarine cables linking Karachi with Southeast Asia, Europe and North America named as SWM3, SMW4 and TWA, first two with the PTCL and the third with a private operator. The total Internet bandwidth to the country stands at around 18 gigabytes, growing at around 45% every year for the last three years.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has decided to allow the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and DSL operators to buy Internet bandwidth from backbone operators other than the PTCL, thus settling a two-year row of the ISPs versus the PTCL.
The ISPs have been complaining to the PTA to amend their DSL Interconnect Agreement with the PTCL signed a few years ago in which the ISPs were restricted to procure Internet bandwidth from the PTCL only. Since the telecom deregulation in 2004, new operators have laid their infrastructure nationally as well as internationally and two years back, second alternate backbone provider, the TWA, started its services in the country.
But the DSL operators, who are the major purchaser of Internet bandwidth, were restrained by their unilateral agreement with the PTCL not to buy bandwidth from any operator other than the PTCL. The ISPs have been complaining to the PTA time and again against this monopolistic and anti-competitive restriction that did not allow them to have redundancy and benefit of competitive prices from alternate operator.
The PTA, after a series of negotiations, has finally issued the minutes of the meeting held between the ISPAK (Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan) and the PTCL on 5th May 2009 in which it was decided that the ISPs will be free to buy Internet bandwidth from third party operators and would be allowed to link their optical fibre cable to one PTCL exchange per city. The PTA has also decided that the PTCL will not increase charges of its leased circuits used by the DSL operators for inter-exchange bandwidth only for the next year.
The PTA has reserved a judgment on settling the DSL wholesale and retail prices of the PTCL and committed to resolve this long outstanding issue within a month. Pakistan has come a long way from the early days of Internet in 1990s with only one submarine cable connecting the country with rest of the world. The country today has three submarine cables linking Karachi with Southeast Asia, Europe and North America named as SWM3, SMW4 and TWA, first two with the PTCL and the third with a private operator. The total Internet bandwidth to the country stands at around 18 gigabytes, growing at around 45% every year for the last three years.
Monday, April 20, 2009
PTA completes targets for 1st quarter
Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has completed targets and goals set for the first quarter (January to March) of 2009. An Authority meeting was held at PTA Headquarters to review the progress on the targets and goals set for the year 2009. The meeting was chaired by Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Member Finance Mr. S. Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, Member technical Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar and attended by senior officers of the Authority. On this occasion, progress of various division and directorates of PTA including Finance, Commercial Affairs, Technical Services, Enforcement, Law, Strategy & Development, Economic Affairs and Human Resources was reviewed.
The progress was reviewed at length on survey of telecom services including mobile operators, reduction in illegal telecom traffic and blocking of IMEI of mobile handsets. It was decided in the meeting that PTA will continue to implement technical solutions to address these issues. It was also decided that consultancies will be carried out on various technical subjects for the benefit of the telecom industry.
It was informed in the meeting that new Numbering Plan for AJ&K and Northern Areas has successfully been implemented with parallel operations for the convenience of telecom users in these areas. It was also informed that PTA has prepared a Disaster Communication Plan to use telecom services effectively in a natural calamity and disaster-hit areas. During the meeting polices to improve human resources in PTA were also discussed.
Chairman PTA showed satisfaction on the progress made by different divisions and directorates of PTA.
Khurram Ali Mehran
Source: http://www.pta.gov.pk/index.php?cur_t=vnormal
Saturday, April 18, 2009
PTA plans to roll out digital push-to-talk system
KARACHI: Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has planned to roll out digital push-to-talk (PTT) network in the country with 800 MHz band spectrums by the next six months considering its high demand for commercial and security purposes, a top official told Daily Times.
The regulatory body will auction band spectrums followed by the allocation of the separate frequency allocations among them. PTA is intending to segregate the spectrum on the basis of frequency bandwidth as well as the geographical area for it’s auctioning, it has been decided.
Digital PTT technology has the potential to bring several benefits to several sectors of Pakistan’s population. Applications of this technology will include all forms of distress signaling, emergency calling, health services, services for fire and security personnel,
Intelligence / border surveillance-type communication and in mainstream businesses perhaps a ready-fit for logistics and transport type operations where an instructor or superintendent is advising instructions to several junior / field staff. In Pakistan frequency bands: 806 – 811MHz and 851-856 MHz have been identified for trunk radio services in the National Frequency Plan. iDEN is one of the few technologies that is capable of providing digital PTT service to various closed-circuit sectors of Pakistan over these bands, it learnt.
Chairman PTA, Dr Muhamamd Yaseen told Daily Times the market would consider every service providers of the digital PTT system as the authority will provide equal opportunity to every player.
He said some of the cellular phone companies have shown keen interest in introducing digital PTT services through their existing wide-base network, however, he said the authority will also include separate independent PTT operators in the race to make competitive market of this technology, aiming to thrive this facility as soon as possible in country.
Currently, the PTA has taken initiatives to acquire industry feedback on the regulatory framework to be adopted for licensing of digital PTT service in Pakistan, he added. PTA chief told the digital systems will be catering to the internal needs of private companies and organisations and enhance new business opportunities in the telecom sector.
In order to bridge this gap between legacy analogue private mobile systems and modern digital public land mobile systems such as GSM, UMTS etc. a new genre of technologies have been developed that can serve the needs of closed circuit Radio users. These technologies include TETRA(Europe), iDEN (USA and Canada), IDRA (Japan), TETRAPOL and Project 25. However, in Pakistan, the private mobile radio is still being used by closed circuit users such as public safety organizations, industrial firms, transportation & security organizations etc.
According to Statistics there are about 47.65 million employed industrial workers in Pakistan as estimated in 2006-07. A good majority of these workers are associated with agriculture, forestry, fishing industry, security organisations, factories, refineries, construction, and transport related businesses. All of these businesses rely heavily on private mobile radios in VHF band for carrying out their dispatch related activities, and hence, are potential users of digital PTT system.
Industry people were of the view the Push-to-Talk digital services will prove to be another milestone in the most competitive and advance telecom sector of the country. They forecast that the advance digital communication system will also attract foreign services operators in the country and the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment will increase in this sector from various countries of the world.
By Muhammad Yasir
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\17\story_17-4-2009_pg5_4
The regulatory body will auction band spectrums followed by the allocation of the separate frequency allocations among them. PTA is intending to segregate the spectrum on the basis of frequency bandwidth as well as the geographical area for it’s auctioning, it has been decided.
Digital PTT technology has the potential to bring several benefits to several sectors of Pakistan’s population. Applications of this technology will include all forms of distress signaling, emergency calling, health services, services for fire and security personnel,
Intelligence / border surveillance-type communication and in mainstream businesses perhaps a ready-fit for logistics and transport type operations where an instructor or superintendent is advising instructions to several junior / field staff. In Pakistan frequency bands: 806 – 811MHz and 851-856 MHz have been identified for trunk radio services in the National Frequency Plan. iDEN is one of the few technologies that is capable of providing digital PTT service to various closed-circuit sectors of Pakistan over these bands, it learnt.
Chairman PTA, Dr Muhamamd Yaseen told Daily Times the market would consider every service providers of the digital PTT system as the authority will provide equal opportunity to every player.
He said some of the cellular phone companies have shown keen interest in introducing digital PTT services through their existing wide-base network, however, he said the authority will also include separate independent PTT operators in the race to make competitive market of this technology, aiming to thrive this facility as soon as possible in country.
Currently, the PTA has taken initiatives to acquire industry feedback on the regulatory framework to be adopted for licensing of digital PTT service in Pakistan, he added. PTA chief told the digital systems will be catering to the internal needs of private companies and organisations and enhance new business opportunities in the telecom sector.
In order to bridge this gap between legacy analogue private mobile systems and modern digital public land mobile systems such as GSM, UMTS etc. a new genre of technologies have been developed that can serve the needs of closed circuit Radio users. These technologies include TETRA(Europe), iDEN (USA and Canada), IDRA (Japan), TETRAPOL and Project 25. However, in Pakistan, the private mobile radio is still being used by closed circuit users such as public safety organizations, industrial firms, transportation & security organizations etc.
According to Statistics there are about 47.65 million employed industrial workers in Pakistan as estimated in 2006-07. A good majority of these workers are associated with agriculture, forestry, fishing industry, security organisations, factories, refineries, construction, and transport related businesses. All of these businesses rely heavily on private mobile radios in VHF band for carrying out their dispatch related activities, and hence, are potential users of digital PTT system.
Industry people were of the view the Push-to-Talk digital services will prove to be another milestone in the most competitive and advance telecom sector of the country. They forecast that the advance digital communication system will also attract foreign services operators in the country and the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment will increase in this sector from various countries of the world.
By Muhammad Yasir
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\04\17\story_17-4-2009_pg5_4
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