Poor service hurts Internet industry
ISLAMABAD- The ever growing local Internet industry relying on the STM-1 link has seriously questioned the service level agreement signed by the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), with Singtel, which frequently goes out of service.
Owing to increasing ills in the Internet connectivity through the much publicized STM-1 link, the ‘Internet Service Providers Association of Pakistan’ (ISPAK), has urged the Minister for Science and ‘Technology, Professor Dr Atta-ur-Rahman to ask the PTCL to sign a proposed service level agreement (SLA), with all its customers of the STM-1 immediately.
The ISPAK delegation while meeting with the minister, pointed towards serious maintenance lapses in the STM-1, during the past weeks. The President ISPAK, Asif Luqman Qazi said.
“Our proposed SLA will safeguard the Internet service providers who have invested billions of rupees”.
The ISPAK said: “After going through the contract that Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL has signed with Singtel, it was found that the Service Level Agreement with Singtel does not guarantee any connectivity on the physical layer, i.e., IPL. Such an agreement is a violation of standard practice the world over. This means that if there is any problem on the optic fibre cable right from Karachi up all the way to New York, Singtel would not provide any guarantee of the service.”
On the one hand, Singtel does provide 99.8 per cent guarantee of service at the Internet Exchange, i.e., IP port, but on the other hand; it becomes immaterial if any problem on the cable occurs which has been quite frequent in the recent Past.
The advisor to the Minster for Science and Technology, Salman Ansari, acknowledged frequent problems in the link during the last few weeks.
However, he denied, that no SLA has been signed with the Singtel, as they are not the only one responsible for maintaining of the whole link from New York to Karachi. “They are just doing one part of the whole thing,” said the minister’s advisor.
Salam pointed out on the one hand the Internet service providers are asking for cheaper bandwidth while on the other they need high quality download speed. “Both cannot be possible at the same time.”
Source: The News
Date:3/23/2002
” 
” 
” 
” 
” 
