USF becomes part of regional telecom council

Telecom development agency to take on leadership role in regional dialogue.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s Universal Service Fund (USF), which promotes development of telecommunications services in un-served and under-served areas of the country, has become part of the South Asia-Middle East-North Africa (SAMENA) Telecommunications Council.

Samena is the region’s sole industry association and its primary purpose is to represent telecommunications operators and service providers.

USF, established by the Ministry of Information Technology, aims to spread the benefits of telecom revolution to all over Pakistan and has now joined this multi-regional council of operators, technology companies, regulatory authorities and government institutions.

According to a statement issued by Samena, USF is ranked globally among a handful of most successful and exemplary implementations of the universal service fund and has been at the forefront of bridging the digital divide within Pakistan since 2007.

USF Chief Executive Officer Parvez Iftikhar said, “In joining Samena, USF Pakistan will be able to lead a cross-regional dialogue on universal service funding. It is another area in which Pakistan has excelled and we believe our country has served as a role model and can continue to do so for other regional countries – just like World Bank and ITU recently asked us to help improve universal service implementation in Indonesia and Thailand.”

Considering USF to be a major player in public and private sectors, Samena CEO and Executive Managing Director Tom Wilson said, “Samena now has this region’s most active and successful universal service implementation agency on board to take on leadership roles.”

According to the statement released by Samena, USF has been achieving its targets of financing expansion of telecommunications services in collaboration with the private sector telecommunications operators’ financial contributions in a market of 170 million inhabitants, where GSM coverage exceeds 80 per cent.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2011.