FIA Smashes an Illegal VoIP Exchange in Islamabad

A Team of Cyber Crime Circle Rawalpindi/Islamabad, FIA Islamabad Zone smashes an illegal VoIP exchange in Islamabad.

Mr. Tariq Hanif Joiya, PSP, who is currently the Director FIA Islamabad Zone, on a complaint filed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, ordered the registration of a case the perpetrators of an illegal business running for illegally providing the telecommunication services used for “Illegal Termination of International Voice Traffic through an illegally installed VoIP Gateway”.

Headed by Syed Aun Abbas Bokhari, officer incharge taking a prompt action on the directions of Mr. Tariq Hanif Joiya, constituted a raid party including Shoaib Ahmed Haroon (SHO), M.Raza (SI), M.Waqas (ASI), Akhtar Ali (ASI), Mumtaz (HC) and Irfan, Gul Niaz, Faheem, Ijaz (FCs), raided a location in Islamabad and recovered an illegally installed VoIP gateway which was causing a loss of approximately Rupees 1.2 Million on daily basis to the national exchequer.

Mr. Tariq Hanif Joiya informed that during the raid conducted in a posh locality of Islamabad, Cyber Crime Circle Rawalpindi/Islamabad, FIA Islamabad arrested four individuals involved in the above mentioned illegal business from the scene of crime.

These individuals got installed the Internet connection from a local Internet Service Provider company with the help of their partners abroad and were successfully receiving the incoming international voice traffic through the Internet connection and were diverting all the calls inside the country causing a loss to the national exchequer in tunes of millions of rupees.

Such kind of voice traffic could not be monitored by any system currently working in the country and can be used by elements located abroad to connect them with anti-state elements/terrorists.

In these calls the receiving person can only see a local number on the CLI of his/her phone for an incoming international call.

Mr. Tariq Hanif Joiya has also requested the patriot Pakistanis to inform the authorities about local phone numbers (landline/mobile) which appear on the CLI of their phones on receiving an international to help the authorities in catching such kind of anti-state elements.

Tech and telecom reporter for over 15 years


  • I was also got such local number call from one of my friend working in saudia. But at that time i wasn’t having such idea.

  • Smashed one! There are several others working, perhaps, in connivance with authorities

  • arresting of these peoples is not good because these are providing facility and encouraging the new trends in cyber world. if FIA wants to do something then he should promote these technologies and follow the changes of the global village.

    Where is PTA and y not providing such facilities to pakistani people or PTA is also trying to become a blood sucking machine like other departments of PAKiSTAN.

    According to me these exchanges are for welfare of paksitan.
    it is right that these exchanges are illegal but snatching or blood sucking form people.

  • Oh, now I understand. This happened with us 2 times. My relatives live in both US & Canada. So one day they call and we got a local number on our CLI. I was confused, I asked them that how is this possible but they had no idea. It was a Warid Telecom number. (0321).

    Same thing happened when our US relatives call. What’s the logic behind this btw?

  • VOIP is a very good service it should be available in pakistan i know couple of… one is T-PAD while other is…. leave it cose im using that one…

  • Lagta ha FIA ko hafta nahi mil raha tha warna sab ko pata ha kay illegal VoIP Pakistan me kitni common ha

  • Salam,

    Can you please tell me from what exact source did you get this news ?

    Secondly, can anyone confirm me (Especially you Aamir Bhai) that is it also illegal to use the VOIP Phones (also called Hard Phones)?

    I mean like i am working for a call center, there we use VOIP Hard Phones, now i was wondering if i could bring one home and get myself online through my DSL connection. I must tell one thing here that there at my office they have a license for Call center issued from PSEB but offcourse i won’t be having it for my home.

    The VOIP Hard phones are phones that are connected through LAN and then we can recieve and dial calls through that & the payments for these calls are done by one of my boss in USA.

    I hope i have explained everything and you people can guide me about it, if not can anyone guide me that where exactly should i contact to ask about it?

    Thanks/Kind regards,

    MAK

    • I got this news from FIA,

      Using VoIP (with hard or soft phones) without call center license is illegal. If your company (call center/software house) has call center, then that’s fine.

      Consult PTA’s regulation for more details.

      • oh really … is it illegal in Pakistan? … I mean using VOIP phone?
        So is it also illegal to do Voice chat over skype, yahoo or other such tools … both sides using their computers? if not then what if I attach a wireless earphone to my computer and do voice chat over yahoo/skype?

    • yar tum use kar sakty ho voip pakistan main bhi yahan k IT department walay itnay experienced nahin hay agar yah ustad hain to hum bhi in k baap hain tum use karoo voip but VPN pay vpn wo service hoti jis pay ap hacking bhi karo gay to pakray nahin jao gay ab sawal peda hota kuin nahin pakray jain kuin k VPN SSL secure hota hay agar yah log ip ko trace karna chahain to hum ko nahin pakar saktay hain kuin k jo vpn ap chalao gay jaysay usa k vpn chalatay ho to in logon ko us k pata chalay ga yah hacking ya voiop US main use ho raha hay yah log pakistan main nahin pakar saktay hum logon ko jo log illegal exchange chalatay hain wo log vpn use nahin kartay isi liyah wo pakray jatay hain agar koi or info chahayh ho to contact kar saktay ho [email protected]

  • Illegal VoIP exchange means that a company is converting International calls to local calls by routing it through mobile sims (therefore u get local mobile number CLI when receiving International call). By doing this u can save millions by not paying USF (Universal service fund), APC (Access promotion charges) to Govt. and other LDI operators.
    Too much money is involved in this game as traffic volumes are high so FIA can’t do much…

  • I am a VoIP user in Gulf so I would like to share a few things with you.

    1- I use both hard and softphones to make calls to my family in Pakistan, I prefer within network calls like Gizmo to Gizmo, Tpad to Tpad, etc & we have hard phones on both ends so PTA should not have problem with this if they use their mind (if they have) as it NO way uses local telecom system/local operators network.

    2- You can spoof you CLI, not just by using Pakistani SIM card /Landline but VoIP operators like Betamax and others allow you to you use your own number to be sent during your calls, ofcourse you can’t set any number but ONLY your number, they send you an activation code on your cell if you want to use your number on CLID.

    Blocking VoIP isn’t future, future is VoIP, as grey telephony operators can use VPN / Two way Satellite Internet & other options to route their traffic and where PTA can’t do anything.

    I have also seen that you can be VoIP operator in 24hrs if you have money & can purchase Grey or white routes. ;)

    By the way, I met around 4 VoIP providers from India in Gitex Dubai, sadly PTA in Pakistan did its best to kill the only one existing in Pakistan..i.e. Braintel.

  • Catch, catch, catch…yes yes!!
    Patriots no. 1 & 2 who will report: Pres. and PM, not necessarily in that order.
    “Chairman PTA Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said that these illegal operations of grey traffic has caused loss of millions of rupees in the last four month to the national exchequer”

    Awww! whats a few million for the “National Exchequer”. The pres. and PM each can alone consume those for a little chai and aloo chhola.
    Its the commercial companies who want the easy juice coming in while it can, with the paid help of PTA and whoever matters.
    More power to the “helpful” gateways, because thats the only way the lesson will be learned and Voip will become legal.
    Ma’as Salaam.

  • Hi,

    Just a thought, I think these measures to curb the spread of innovation in the telephony services is such a shit policy on behalf of PTA.

    A point to consider, if anti state elements want to communicate within the country, they can still do it by using voip to voip rather than routing their calls to through PSTN gateways.

    It’s all about etisalat and their policies to curb the spread of internet based telephony. They are earning billions and who is paying the price? Innocent pakistanis who have already fleed from the country because of adverse business and economic conditions.

    Calls to India used to be so expensive, but nowadays they have come down to 1p per minute, and calls to pakistan are still hovering around 5p.

    _____ PTA!! the hell with you and your policies.

    [Comment Edited]


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