Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr. Mohammed Yaseen has said that broadband services have potential to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the country and these can be utilized to enhance usage of information in different spheres of life.  He said this while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Connect Conference 2009 as chief guest, organized at Karachi Expo Centre.

The Chairman PTA said that effective measures are required to bring broadband revolution in Pakistan and PTA has taken number of initiatives in this regard. He said apart from reduction in rates the growth of broadband is also dependent on development of local contents and applications for users. If contents are prepared locally they can help in bringing awareness and education among the public.

Chairman PTA said, that PTA is facilitating growth of various telecom services including broadband. He said some operators have launched Wimax Broadband services while Telecard and Wi-tribe are preparing to launch these services.

He said that PTA has also formed a Broadband Stakeholders Group to enhance industry coordination for the promotion of broadband services. The operators should also make their awareness and marketing campaign effective to attract new users.

He said that few of PTAâ??s recent achievements include Mobile Number Portability (over 400,000 ported subscribers), New SIM verification system (11.2 Million Un-registered numbers blocked), AJ&K Licensing, Rural Telephony (349 Rabta Ghar installed), Gray Traffic Monitoring and provisioning of Free Dial-up services. He said that we have also taken key measures to ensure protection of telecommunication consumers.  We are also facing numerous challenges including falling ARPUs and decrease in FDI. Increase in taxation in the shape of GST and import duty is another issue that we are trying to address.

Dr.Yaseen said that PTA has recently conducted a comprehensive study on socio economic impact of telecommunication in Pakistan which showed positive results. More studies and consultancies are being planned on different aspects of telecom.

The Connect Conference 2009 is being held in concurrence with the 4^th Information and Communications Technology Exhibition & Conference at the Karachi Expo Centre.

 

Khurram Ali Mehran

Director (Public Relations)