Page 94 - SAMENA Trends - April 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Pakistan

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is investigating Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), the
the reported data breach of some 115 million Pakistani mobile PTA had exempted itself from helping the nation in testing times
users, which is being sold on the dark web for millions of dollars. and tried to pass on the entire responsibility to telecom operators.
“It is still a claim that data of 115 million Pakistani users has In a letter written to PTA, ISPAK Convener Wahaj us Siraj said while
been breached but we are trying to verify the authenticity of the telcos in many countries had provided relief to their customers
claim by someone on the dark web," stated Chairman PTA Major with better packages, they had been fully backed and subsidized
General (R) Amir Azeem Bajwa, quoted Arab News. “There are by their respective governments and regulators in form of
multiple reports we are receiving during our investigation as few elimination of taxes, regulatory fees and provision of subsidies.
claims are surfacing that it is old data," he added. The chairman Terming the proposed package by PTA ‘irrational’, the letter said
said that they have contacted all mobile operators and will be able a package with 40GB data limit would be consumed in just few
to verify the report in a week. Meanwhile, Minister for Telecom, days. It added that one month’s extension in payment of bills
Syed Aminul Haque, has said that the government is taking steps could be given if PTA provided a financial guarantee for defaulters
to ensure the safety of cyber data and working on new legislation who would not pay deferred charges. “There’s no comparison of
for the country's Cybersecurity. The development comes after a costs of a cellular operator with fixed line operators. Deployment
Pakistani Cybersecurity company discovered a data dump of 115 costs of FTTH is 30x of a cellular customer. There is no upfront
million Pakistani mobile users' data, which have been put up for cost of a cellular operator in connecting a new customer whereas
sale on the dark web on Friday. As per rewterz, the company that FLOs installation cost for one customer is around Rs10,000,” it
has found the data dump says that the cybercriminal behind this said. According to ISPAK, the cost of providing internet services
data breach is demanding $2.1 million for the data. The company to customers during COVID-19 had increased. The bandwidth
said that it has analyzed the samples of the data dump that has usage increased drastically due to which FLOs had to buy costly
been released on a popular dark web forum. The stolen data additional bandwidth in US dollars from upstream providers. A
includes users' personal details, such as full name, complete reference had been pending with PTA for last three years to delink
address, their mobile numbers as well as their NIC number and the cost of bandwidth with US dollars but nothing happened, it said.
Tax number. (April 13, 2020) brecorder.com It said the FLOs had to adopt safety measures for their employees
and this added to operational costs. Revenues had also drastically
As the internet use in the country has increased during the decreased by 50-60pc due to corporate sector shut down, the
COVID-19 lockdowns, the Pakistan Telecommunication Autho rity ISPAK said, adding that the operators were struggling to keep their
(PTA) has asked internet providers to offer affordable services to employees and not opting for layoffs. The association urged the
customers. In a letter to Fixed Line Operators (FLO) on Thursday PTA to review its proposal. It urged the authority to abolish 12.5pc
—a copy of which is available with Dawn — the PTA said during advance income tax and 19.5pc provincial sales tax, thus giving
the ongoing lockdown across the country, the overall requirement 32pc direct relief to internet users. It also called for reduction in
in the country for broadband had increased considerably. In view the cost of wholesale internet bandwidth of upstream providers
of the prevailing COVID-19 circumstances and mandate given from current $2-2.5/Mbits/month to $0.5/Mbis/month (as per
under Section 4(1) C read with Section 6 (F) of the Paki stan international prices). The association also urged the authority to
Telecomm unication (Re-organization) Act 1996, the PTA directed delink bandwidth costs with USD so that internet users could get
all fixed-line operators to immediately launch student/work from 50-100Mbps speed broadband at affordable price. When asked
home packages of 2Mbps (40GB data limit) at a reasonable rate for comment on the concerns raised, the PTA said it would review
of less than Rs600 (inclusive of tax) per month. The letter further the letter and take action where needed. “We have written letters
advised operators to offer more relief to its subscribers in terms to licensed operators to encourage them to launch pro-consumer
of additional data on top of package limits, one-month extension offers in the wake of COVID-19. The PTA’s intentions are to act in
in billing due dates and continuity of services to the customers if support of all stakeholders including consumers and operators,”
they could not pay within the due date. However, according to the a PTA spokesperson told Dawn. (April 6, 2020) dawn.com

Saudi Arabia

Governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission for Sustainable Development. The leaders of the
Commission Dr. Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi participated communications and information technology sector from various
in the virtual meeting of the United Nations Broadband governmental, international and private agencies took part in

94 APRIL 2020