April 19, 2010

Effective Steps Needed to Promote M-Commerce: Chairman PTA

Islamabad: “Formulation of Collaborative Regulatory Framework, Third Party Mobile Banking Regulations, Consumer Confidence & Protection and Adoption of Latest Trends are those initiatives which can bring about unprecedented growth in mobile commerce (m-commerce)” said Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Dr. Mohammed Yaseen. He was addressing a two day workshop cum seminar with a theme “Broadband Networks: Technologies, Trends, Opportunities and Needs” arranged by Military College of Signals (MCS) here today. Representatives of MCS, IT & telecom industry and educational institutions were also present on the occasion.

Chairman PTA, in his address, discussed in detail the opportunity model in m-commerce. He shed light on different areas of m-commerce and highlighted scope of opportunities vis-à-vis local market trends. He discussed different market segments, types, present trends, drivers & constraints of mobile money and also shared information on the global and local forecast of mobile banking.

Dr. Yaseen said that we require a mutual collaboration, for the development of local applications and contents, by industry and academic institutions to promote usage of broadband in all spheres of life. He said, operators are looking for future revenue streams which are very much dependent on availability of value added data services. Key issue in further development of data segment is non-availability of local content and applications which can contribute towards ICT-based economical contribution. That’s why, today, the PTA’s main focus is on the development of local content and applications, he added. He also emphasized on the need of a strong industry-academia linkage for the proliferation of broadband sector and its different areas.

Chairman PTA appreciated the efforts of MCS on arranging this workshop. He also invited other industry stakeholders to play their role in providing such platforms to discuss trends, opportunities and needs in the broadband sector.