STAFF REPORT IBD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has notified the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for making difference of blacklist and whitelist IP addresses used by various service providers.
The directives issued by the authority recently state that white list would be the list of IP addresses maintained by service providers for the purpose of allowing them for using VoIP services.
The list will be maintained by the Vigilance Directorate of PTA and will contain the IPs reported by PTA licensed operators authorized by the government of Pakistan, the notification said.
As per current rules, regulations, government policies and the VoIP clarification issued by PTA, any IP address would be included in the white list which fulfils different criteria and terms of engagements under regulations and formats.
The PTA instructed that cellular mobile operators which are assigned to APNs for GPRS/EDGE that these IPs would be used exclusively for the purpose these will be whitelisted.
The detection of any commercial VoIP service on these IPs will render them a candidate for permanent blocking in addition to a strict action against the concerned CVAS licensee/CMO, PTA warned.
The IP addresses are allowed for providing international video conference facility through by LDIs/LL/CVARS operators to their non-licensed customers. However, switching within Pakistan is only allowed through LL/LDI as per their license conditions.