PTA Witnesses a Decline of 92% in the Grey traffic After the Deployment of WMS

With the advancement in technology, new techniques and systems are arriving to eliminate the grey traffic. If we define grey traffic, it is the use of illegal telephone exchanges for making international calls bypassing the legal channels. In line with that, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has claimed that after the deployment of Web Management Solution (WMS), a hefty decline of around 92% in grey traffic was observed. The Web Management Solution blocks voice calls coming via unauthorized grey channels.

PTA Witnesses a Decline of 92% in the Grey traffic After the Deployment of WMS

After the deployment of WMS back in March 2020, the international incoming voice traffic via legal channels has risen to around 757 million minutes per month during January 2020 to July 2021. In addition to that, a significant decline of about 92 percent in grey SIMs identification has been observed from January 2020-July 2021. As per the statistics, more than 504,563 SIMs have been blocked for their engagement in grey telephony.

According to a source, grey trafficking, which has been decreased significantly but could not be eliminated completely despite the installation of biometric verification. The grey traffic is posing a serious security threat to the country.

The grey SIMs are either allotted by deceiving people via a number of means by taking their finger impressions in real-time or by misuse of their captured finger impressions on silicon sheets in offline mode.

To control the threat of grey traffic, the PTA is working on a comprehensive approach.

Few pointers of the approach are mentioned below:

(i) Strengthening of BVS to reduce misuse – these involve the introduction of Live Finger Detect (LFD)-based BVS machines, broadcasting of SIM count to each subscriber, etc

(ii) PTA will take the action against violating sale channels by CMOs – which encompass imposition of fines, suspension and termination of sale channels.

(iii) The cases of issuance of grey SIMs will be regularly shared with FIA.

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