PTCL set to sign accord with ISPs
KARACHI- Pakistan Telecommunication, Internet backbone provider, is all set to sign Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the country’s all 72 Internet service providers to compensate for the service failure, officials said.
A recently held meeting of PTCL board of directors thoroughly discussed the SLA and finally decided to approve it in the next one.
“We have sent the final copy of the agreement (SLA) to our Technical Committee which is expected to be approved in the next Board meeting on 17th (June),” said a top official in the company.
“We (PTCL) have agreed to provide 99 per cent availability on the domestic network and 95 per cent availability on the copper loop,” he said quoting the SLA.
The state-owned telecom firm a week ago had already slashed bandwidth rates, but the cut appeared to fall short of ISPs’ expectations, who say they will be unable to pass it on to their subscribers.
The PTCL has brought down rate for two megabits bandwidth to $5,400 per month from $6,000 per month, eight megabits to $19,000 from $21,600 per month and 34 megabits to $71,300 from $76,000 per month.
“Yeah, the PTCL is entering first time in the history into such type of agreement with anyone,” agreed the PTCL official.
The ISPs had lodged a strong protest with the Ministry of IT and Telecom after experiencing for over a month denial of service (DoS) attacks, which they claimed caused a loss of over million to them.
The SLA privileges the ISPs to seek compensation from PTCL if they receive failure or below standard service.
However, the SLA signing doesn’t seem bringing any benefit for country’s Internet browsers as the PTCL says it is not authorised to restrict the ISPs to pass it on to their subscribers.
The PTCL official showed helplessness when asked: “Has PTCL asked ISPs to pass on the benefit from SLA signing to their general subscribers?”
“It is up to them (ISPs). We have nothing to do with that. It may be a job for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority,” he replied.
However, the SLA signing news has brought some relief to the ISPs, which are expecting proper and uninterrupted operation after that.
“It’s really a good news for all of us (ISPs). It took us three years to fight for this case,” said Wahaj-us-Sairaj of ISPs Association.
“This would no doubt revolutionize the Internet industry in Pakistan as this is the first ever SLA that PTCL would be signing with any of its customer during the last 50 years,” he added. He assured the SLA would also be benefiting millions of Internet browsers.
Source: The News
Date:6/10/2003
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