The government is targeting far flung areas of Pakistan for provision of broadband services and very recently President of Pakistan has inaugurated a broadband project in an underserved district of Pak Patan. A number of fiber optic projects are also underway and we have recently introduced services like easy payments and IPTV for local telecom users, according to Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa, the Minister In charge MoIT.
He said that the telecom sector of Asia has shaped in such a way that it has become exemplary even for the West, however, their remains a dearth of research and learning activities among ourselves. He said it is hoped that such efforts would go a long way in building stronger relationships among countries and providing a platform for sharing each other's experience and learn from them.
Khosa said that the Government of Pakistan has been taking keen interest in the development and growth of the telecom sector and is taking every possible step to take it to even better position. He was speaking at a two-day international event -- Expert Forum on Mobile 2.0 Applications and Conditions -- in Islamabad organised by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with LIRNEasia, Sri Lanka.
Minister In charge MoIT was the chief guest of the opening session while Secretary Cabinet Division, Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, Secretary MoIT, Naguib Ullah Malik, Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Member (Finance) PTA, Syed Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, Member (Technical) PTA, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar were also present on this occasion. CEO LIRNEasia, Dr. Rohan Samarajiva gave welcome speech. Chairman PTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, in his welcome note, said that Mobile 2.0 Conditions and Applications is an appealing subject especially in case of Pakistan where local mobile sector has been revolutionized in less than half a decade with the less than a million subscribers in 2004 and today we are standing at 97 million and would be hitting 100 million subscribers in another 3 to 4 months. He said that the revenues of mobile companies have grown tremendously and today stand at Rs 212 billion (2009). The total foreign investments that poured in Pakistan since 2007 have been more than US$ 4 billion maintaining an average share of 28% in total FDI of Pakistan. ARPU's of the industry have become more stable and stand at US$ 2.5.
The Chairman said that mobile sector is one of the major contributor in tax collection in Pakistan and only in 2009 Rs 112 billion have been submitted to the government kitty which is more than 7% to 8% of total tax collected. He said that Pakistan is one of the few first ones in the world to implement Mobile Number Portability (MNP). He said, the operators are introducing world class value added services to its customers including mobile banking, mobile internet, music libraries, utility bills payment, GPRS services, voice messaging and stock market updates are to name a few. However, we are at the moment facing lower data revenues in the sector, he added.
In reference to the Expert Forum, Dr. Yaseen said that this meeting mainly concentrates on the topic “beyond voice” an area on which globally countries are working in order to increase their revenues. He said that since Pakistan's mobile voice market has become quite mature we are also looking towards beyond voice zones now. “I expect that through this forum's sessions, we would certainly gain from experiences and researches of the fellow foreign participants. We would like to utilize the work of participants while devising our own strategies for improving data services and beyond” he said.
The event focuses on the opportunities for delivery of more-than-voice services (such as m-payments, m-government, m-commerce) through mobile platforms, explore the possibility of using mobile as the “triple play” in the developing world. It invites deep dialog among participants by using the extensive research already done by LIRNEasia in emerging Asia and Pakistan's experience of successful growth in telecom sector.
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Quelle/Source: Voice & Data, 05.05.2010
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