The government of Pakistan has raided two illegal VoIP gateway exchanges in the cities of Okara and Lahore, according to the Online International News Network.
“This action was a result of continuous efforts of highly technical professionals and dedicated workers of PTA who check and monitor the illegal call termination activities and adopt different procedures and processes to track the illegal telecom gateways,” a PTA statement said.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) conducted the joint raid, which seized around 35 VoIP gateways along with supporting hardware, as well as a large number of SIM cards. One person was also arrested.
Unlike the United States, the telecom market in Pakistan is highly regulated. A number of entrepreneurs of set up a “grey market” of VoIP services, risking raids like the one the government performed on the two gateway exchanges.
The PTA and FIA also conducted a similar raid in Lahore and Karachi a couple of days earlier, resulting in the seizure of five gateways and six SIM boxes, as well as the arrest of four other people.
Pakistan also isn’t the only country that regulates VoIP usage. Police in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia arrested five expatriates who used software to make cheaper calls back home to India. “Unauthorized” use of the phone system, such as VoIP software, is illegal. None of the major telecom companies in Saudi Arabia offer VoIP services.
India, Pakistan and many of the Gulf states tend to all crack down on companies offering VoIP services in an attempt to protect the revenues of telecom companies, forcing customers to use traditional phone service instead of over-the-top services like Skype (News - Alert). This contrasts with countries like the U.S., which allow VoIP providers to operate unimpeded.
The raids show that there is an obvious demand for these services, but the governments show no sign of wanting to allow VoIP in their countries.
Edited by Alisen Downey