The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, abbreviated as PTA, is a state owned enterprise responsible for the regulation of establishment, operation and maintenance of telecommunications in Pakistan. One of their major role is to promote and protect the interests of users of telecommunication services in Pakistan and promote the availability of a wide range of high quality, efficient, cost effective and competitive telecommunication services throughout Pakistan. PTA has recently announced that all educational institutions and online businesses can use legal Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP), Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and video conferencing applications to carry on their online activities without any restrictions from the government.
This announcement made by the PTA has given these institutions the liberty to have access to all present and legal VoIPs, VPNs and video conferencing apps used around the world and are now considered a norm. This includes having an access to apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Google Meets, Zoom, Blue Jeans, Cisco WebEx, Team viewer, Meraki VPN etc which are now made available to be used for virtual education and business activities.
It is important to note that these institutions still need to follow the necessary Telecom Rules and Regulations. PTA will only take action against those institutions or businesses using VoIP and VPNs for terminating illegal traffic which causes loss to the exchequer. It is important to note that certain social media website or reports have stated that the PTA has blocked all VoIP, Video Conference and VPN solutions and that is certainly not the case.
Moreover, PTA is also working in coordination with the Ministry of IT and Telecom (MoIT&T) and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) in an effort to regularize the operations of BPO/Call Center Industry. In this effort, Internet Protocols (IP) applied for whitelisting through relevant service providers are processed for approval within 24 hours.
