Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati on Friday apprised the Senate that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ( PTA ) has neither authorized some contract for checking of Website Traffic with some vendor nor spent public money on the task.
The minister while replying to a query in the Senate declared that in compliance to statutory and policy obligations, the PTA directed the telecom industry to deploy a suitable technical answer capable of checking, analyzing and curbing grey traffic.
"The declared checking system would be called Web Monitoring System ( WMS ). The agreement was signed up between relevant telecom operators and the vendor without the involvement of public money, he declared. All Long Distance and International ( LDI ) licensees, CMOs ( Cellular Mobile Operators ) and Submarine Cable Landing Station licensees were sharing the price of the system under their regulatory obligations, he declared.
The minister declared that the PTA, for addressing safety concerns, obtained an undertaking from the vendor, the Inbox Business Technologies, and developer company Sandvine Inc. The USA, for any possible involvement of hostile component. The vendor was also obligated to get the method certified as per ISO 27001 international standards, he added.
Swati declared that in addition, a safety organization has been involved to conduct a safety audit of the system to find out some loopholes and vulnerabilities in the method. He told to additional ensure the safety, a strict clause about system and material breach was included in the contract. In case, any such breach was identified and accepted, the agreement would be terminated, he added.
To an additional question, the minister declared that PTA along with Frequency Allocation Board ( FAB ) monitored the Power Level of Base Transceiver Station ( BTS ) ( towers ) in accordance with regulations. "So far, 5 surveys had been conducted in 36 cities wherein the power level of 2,429 BTS ( towers ) had been checked.” The BTS ( towers ) of all Cellular Mobile Operators ( CMOs ) and Wireless Local Loop Operators ( WLLOs ) was transmitting power within the prescribed limits defined in Regulations and hence were not harmful to human health, he declared.