K-P infrastructure affected: PTA

Recent floods have seriously affected the infrastructure of telecommunication services in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

KARACHI: Recent heavy rains and floods have seriously affected the infrastructure of telecommunication services in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a statement on Monday.

It said that the areas worst affected as far as telecommunication infrastructure is concerned includes Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Swat, Dir, Malakand, Kohat, Jahangira, D I Khan and Timergara.

Total of 53 Base Station Controllers (BSCs) and 2,703 Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) have been affected.The PTA pointed out that though the restoration of services was a gigantic task in the wake of heavy floods and access issues in affected areas, the backbone service providers and mobile operators made utmost efforts and chalked out revival plans.

As a result, a total of 43 BSCs and 2,239 BTSs have been restored so far. Remaining sites are being accessed by technical teams and will be restored as soon as possible, the PTA said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2010.