Banned Adult Sites Accessible at PTCL and WorldCall Networks

by Ahmed Rayyan

Adult websites are accessible on the networks of PTCL and WorldCall after one and half months since the telecom authority issued the directives for blocking 1,000 most viewed websites.

There are many reports received that PTA and WorldCall did not block websites ordered by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) till December 10 because the operators sought advantage of attracting customers towards them through “dirty marketing.”

PTA directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block 1,000 accessible adult websites in a week earlier in October. There are more than 50 ISPs operating in different parts of the country, providing internet services to the customers through different modes of technology and charges.

Majority of the operators have blocked these websites before the given time period within deadline but WorldCall and particularly PTCL, having largest base of internet users on its network, is reluctant to block these website for attracting customers from different network.

Analysts questioned the effectiveness of PTA enforcement if the blockade of websites did not carry out on the internet network that provides services to nearly 70 percent of the internet subscribers in the country.

According to an estimate, the internet connections have been increased to cross 20 million benchmark in 2011, therefore 14 million internet users have been connected through PTCL services.

The subscribers are mainly use dial-up connections, DSL broadband and wireless broadband services offered by PTCL. Hence, the internet sector is the main source of earnings of the company which has been posting growth in the past couple of fiscal years.

Analysts said that PTCL is focusing on its internet services presently rather than telephony market and it ignored PTA directives and enforcement orders many times in the past.

They added that WorldCall administration also ignores PTA’s directives on the support of political connections and influence in the ministry and authority.

PTA ordered all ISPs to block 1,000 websites having immoral content in a meeting held on October 21. It said all operators to develop a mechanism for the censorship so they internet could be filtered properly with the passage of times and more than 170,000 websites and links with adult content could be blocked in viewing Pakistan.