What is Grey Traffic? Explained in detail

What is grey traffic? Telephone companies in different countries use a variety of international telecom routes to send traffic to each other. These can be white, gray, or black.

White is, in the telecommunications business, a route in which both source and destination are legal terminations. The black route is a route that is illegal on both ends, while the grey route defines a route that is legal for one country or party on one end but illegal on the other end.

Grey routes are arrangements that fall outside the regular course of business between the licensed telecom companies in each country. The gray part of the route is usually at the far end, where the call is terminated. Up to that point, there are normal arrangements to deliver the call from the subscriber to the sending carrier and between the sending carrier and the satellite or cable operator for the trunk part of the call. The grayness arises because, at the far end, the call is made to appear as if it originates locally, as a domestic call rather than a more expensive international call. This is the reason why we get an international call with a domestic number.

So, the main reason why Grey Traffic is highlighted in the post is that it is a type of corruption happening in Pakistan that causes losses of more than 1 billion dollars a year.

According to the committee, PTA cannot monitor the incoming and outgoing call traffic, which is causing a loss of $1 billion per year. The PTA is only capable of monitoring 13% of the traffic, the committee learned.

Recently, the PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) took serious action against grey traffic and started toll-free numbers and SMS to report such cases in Pakistan. In this screenshot, you can see the numbers to report, free of charge.

In recent months, the PTA has launched a nationwide effort to curb illegal international calls. Through fraudulent processes, some parties allow for calls to be made internationally but charged at local rates. The result is that the government of Pakistan is losing a considerable amount of revenue because of these practices. As responsible citizens of Pakistan, you must report a call originating from abroad but displaying a local number to the authorities.

To this effect, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has set up a toll-free hotline that can be reached at (800) 550-55. You may also send an SMS, free of charge, to 8866 to inform the PTA about any international calls that seem suspicious to you.

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