Broadband subscribers rise to 900,000

KARACHI: The number of broadband service subscribers in the country has grown from 45,000 in 2007 to 900,000 this year and Pakistan is ranked sixth in terms of quarterly growth and tenth in terms of annual growth in the global broadband market, a government official said. Federal Secretary for Information Technology, Naguibullah Malik, was speaking at a seminar entitled “Demands for 3G and Beyond”, organised by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority here on Monday.

The event was aimed at increasing awareness of the newest technology for combining mobile phone services with internet services. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the region without a single mobile phone company offering 3G (third generation) services.

The federal secretary revealed that 3G technology will be launched in the country soon.

“All policy requirements for the issuance of 3G licences have been completed,” added Malik, encouraging telecom service providers to apply for licences.

Chairman Pakistan Telec-ommunication Authority, Dr Muhammad Yaseen, stressed that localised software applications are needed to encourage the use of services for data transfer on mobile phones.

“Telecom service providers should work with software developers to formulate localised variations of popular applications and services. These will help develop more demand for data transfer services in the country,” said Yaseen.

He added that seminars and awareness drives will be organised in other cities as well to bolster demand for the latest technology.

Participants highlighted that wireless broadband services are gaining popularity across the world, with 70 per cent of the expected growth in telecom sector to come from this sector.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2010.