President briefed on up-gradation of telecom sector

A briefing meeting was held in the presidency on Monday on the on the up-gradation of telecom sector of the country.

The meeting chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari was attended among other by Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs, Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Water & Power, Mr. M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Federal secretaries of Finance and IT divisions, Chairman PEMRA Dr. Abdul Jabbar, Chairman PTA Mr. Muhammad Yasin, Chairman NTC Brig (R) M. Younas and other senior officials.

Briefing the meeting Mr. Saeed Ahmed Khan, Secretary IT and Telecom, informed that around 40% of the total international minutes terminated in Pakistan were coming into the country through grey channels causing significant loss to the telecom sector revenue.

It was also informed that the existing mobile phone services were based on second generation technology and Pakistan was lagging behind in broad band service. Wireless broadband solutions with latest technology especially 3G could fill this gap, it was told. It was informed that more than 85% of the operators in the world have deployed 3G technologies due to its better coverage and faster data transfer abilities.

President Asif Ali Zardari directed that a committee comprising of Finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Water & Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and the representatives of the private sector to go through the proposal prepared in this regard by the IT Ministry and submit their recommendations to the Government at the earliest. The President also directed that another meeting to discuss this issue further be convened soon. SANA