No Sale of Mobile Phones in the Country without PTA approval

No Sale of Mobile Phones in the Country without PTA approval. Finally, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to bar the sale of the mobile phones/Smartphones without IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers or its prior  approval. By keeping in view the security situation and ongoing terrorism  in the country, PTA has taken this decision.
The report, published in Dawn News revealed that PTA has written down to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and demanded that customs officials  will not clear any consignments of mobile phones unless the importer gets the PTA approval of clearance. Furthermore, the importers and mobile phone maker will  have to  submit the IMEI number of each of the cellphones sold in the markets of the country. It is not clear yet whether PTA is going to fix a fee for getting approval or not.
PTA has not finalized yet if it is going to fix a fee for the type approval or not. PTA is making use of the to get approval under section 29 of the Pakistan Telecommunications (Re-anisation) Act, 1996.

YouTube.com.pk will soon be accessible in Pakistan

YouTube.com.pk  will soon be accessible in Pakistan. There is a good news for Pakistanis that the YouTube.com.pk soon be accessible in Pakistan as Google is planning to localize the Video sharing website. Some Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) officials related to this matter have told  to media that YouTube is going to launch his sub-domain in Pakistan soon.
The Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications Anusha Rehman said if they met the Google management requirements the chances of YouTube restoration in the country are bright. She told this at the Senate Standing Committee on Tuesday. She told that committee that the government had succeeded in convincing the Google management about religious sensitivities of Pakistanis and in this come into practice it would also be easier for the local search engine to block any blasphemous or objectionable content from the website.
She said that the Google management of YouTube is willing to localize the video sharing website in the country but will not be responsible if any objectionable content uploaded on the website as this will be a personal action of the individual.
She added that the PTA is working on a draft ordinance which will be practiced by the ministry for enactment as law. If the YouTube be localized in Pakistan to remove the objectionable content from the website would be easier, instead of installing expensive filtration softwares.
Google removed the Anti-Islamic content from the website at the request of different Islamic countries including Saudi Arabi,  Libya, Egypt and Iraq by allocating them special subdomain for their countries because they met the Google requirements. By Localizing the video sharing website Google would not be infringing its own company law of encumbering freedom of expression.  The officials of ministry of IT are demanding to eradicate profanity content first and also the endorsement of draft from both national assembly and senate for launching the youtube.com.pk in the country.

Zong officially launched Biometric System: Ufone All set to Implement

Zong officially launched Biometric System: Ufone All set to Implement. Zong, the Chinese cellular company in Pakistan, has officially launched Biometric system or SIM verification system today, at its two Customer Service Centers (CSC) in Karachi. Zong Telecom is the first carrier in Pakistan to implement the SIM verification system in the country while the rest of the cellular companies have a plan to launch it before the 20^th December, 2013.Zong will implement the biometric SIM verification system across the country at its service centres, franchises and sales outlets in coming days. Earlier, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) given a deadline to all existing cellular operator in the country to implement biometric systems for the issuance of  mobile SIMs. All Telecom companies were given a time limit till 30^th November, 2013 for the implementation of the biometric SIMs verification system on their service centers in Karachi. At the implementation ceremony by Zong, the chairman of PTA Dr. Syed Ismail Shah was the first person to hands on the new Zong SIM using biometric SIM verification after cross verifying his thumb impression with NADRA’s data in real time. For buying a new SIM a customer will have to present his/her  Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) at the selling outlets or Franchises. After that the customers have to record his/her thumb impression. The biometric system is linked with the NDRA’s data which will prove the customers' identity.
If the SIM purchaser’s identity means thumb impressions will match with NDRA’s data he/she will be able to grab the SIMs. While commenting at the launching ceremony PTA chairman said that the watchdog and cellular carriers in the country are making all potential efforts to get rid of the usage of unregistered SIMs. Presently, the cellular industry is going through just the verification of new SIMs sale, but later on all the operating SIMs also be verified, in order to completely get rid of the use of illegal SIMs in the country, he added.
On the other hand Ufone Telecom declared in a press release that the company is all set to deploy the Biometric System in Karachi till 30^th November, while the rest of the cities before 20^th December.

3G Auction: Supreme Court Directs to appoint PTA Chairman in One Week

3G Auction: Supreme Court Directs to appoint PTA Chairman in One Week

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the government to appoint the Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in One Week. The directive issued by the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. They gave the government one-week time limit to assign the head of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The position of the Chairman PTA had been lying vacant since February and the bench said that the PTA was almost non-functional. The court questioned why was the PTA Chairman not assigned and observed that there should not be any further delay.

The order of the bench reads as:

“We direct the Secretary concerned to take up the issue immediately and discharge his function by appointing the chairman of the PTA without further loss of time.”

During the hearing on Chairman PTA Appointment the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked about the auctionof 3G technology and said that without the chairman all the decisions taken up by the authority will not be legal.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) for Pakistan Imran-UL-Haq told the court the government had already issued a schedule for bringing the 3G technology in the country.

DAG said that an acting chairman, Syed Ismail Shah ,had been appointed in the PTA, who would be removed after the appointment because the court reminded him that there was no concept of acting chairman under section 3 of the Pakistan Telecommunication Reorganisation Act 1996.

Syed Ismail Shah was appointed acting chairman under a notification issued on September 26, 2013. The court later adjourned the case for one week directing the government to appoint a permanent chairman at the earliest.

It's worth mentioned here that earlier Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the government to appoint the members and chairman SCorders to appoint PTA Chairman PTA in 15 days of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in the next 15 days while keeping in view the rules and regulations of the institution. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary also ordered that the auction of 3G license must be done 15 days after the appointment of members and chairman of PTA.

Thus nothing come out. Now it is left to see what will happen next, will PTA appoint Chairman soon and the Pakistani nation will be able to relish the taste of 3G technology in coming months.

India to Have YouTube on TVs: Pakistanis still waiting for its restoration

It is a big regret for Pakistan not to have YouTube in the country. Numerous times we heard that government has made plans, devised policies or software to filter YouTube and it will soon be restored in the country. But nothing happened like that and now it’s more than a year our government and IT is unable to restore the social video sharing site in the country. It seems that our institution has not enough capability to address with the issue and they just made castle in the air. Look at our neighbor country namely India, who has done tremendous progress in almost every field. I think like our country they don’t prefer to ban the one that creates panic instead they try to solve the matter with technical expertise. It can also be said that our government has not enough power or you can say enough authority to pressurize the concerned authority (Google) to address the issue.

Cellular Services to remain suspended from 4PM to 8PM in Various Cities of Pakistan

Today, the Muslim community is celebrating Youm-e-Ali (RA) in the country and the government of Pakistan ordered to suspend the cellular service in the different cities including Karachi, Quetta, Lahore Multan, Sialkot, Sargodha and other cities, to avoid any unhappy incident.Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all the cellular operators in the country to suspend their wireless and cellular services in various cities today.READ MORE