TWO new Cellular Mobile Licenses awarded to Telenor and Warid telecom against an amount of US$ 291 million each through open auction has led to the creation of job opportunities for our skilled individuals and has further helped in the lowering of tariffs of the mobile services thus benefiting the common man directly. For the first time in Pakistan, apart from the price competition, users are getting conscious of the Quality of service issues and the availability of value added services in addition to the plain telephone service. Mobile sector has exhibited a growth of approximately 100% in year 2004-05 thus showing a trend of exponential growth every year. Mobile phones have also been allowed to be used as PCOs in rural areas where fixed line is not available. The policy of the government to reduce the activation charges on new mobile connections by 50% has an effect of a catalyst over the growth of the mobile industry.
The LDI (Long Distance International) and Local Loop Companies (LL), both local and foreign have started their operations in different parts of the country. The initial license fee of Rs. 1.7 Billion received from LL and LDI licensees has shown the confidence of the investors in this growing market. Auction of the Spectrum for WLL companies through open bidding has touched Rs.15 billion with many other companies showing strong interest in the spectrum allocation.

Interconnect agreement between PTCL & card payphone operators concluded last year was the biggest break through. The result was an enormous growth of the pay phone industry which was previously facing lot's of issues hampering it's growth. Some companies have started offering Video Conferencing facilities in collaboration with the event management companies through hiring of leased lines from PTCL. PTCL has drastically reduced the tariff's of fixed lines Nationally and Internationally throughout the year thus keeping in pace with the changing dynamics of the telecom market. In addition to this the line rent has also been slashed drastically.

To achieve the objectives of promoting indigenous research and development activity in Information and Communication Technologies an R&D fund was constituted last year with substantial annual contributions from PTCL revenues. The process of transformation of PTCL's R&D Fund into an efficient initiative is on the way.

Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) has very actively started putting it's act together with very strict directions to the Mobile Cellular Service Operators, LDI's, WLL, Card Pay Phone companies and PTCL. directed toward improvement on the Quality of Service parameters & issues. Declaration of Telecommunications Sector as Industry is having a very positive impact on the overall growth.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Special Communications Organization (SCO) has started its cellular operations in earthquake effected areas of AJ&K. It is expected that the services will be expanded in other areas of AJK keeping in view the regulatory and national security concerns.
The biggest breakthrough last year was the adoption of the Broadband policy by the Government. Many Broadband companies have stepped into the market this year providing Internet connectivity through the high speed DSL lines at a very competitive price. With the introduction of the Broadband policy a shift from the low speed dial-up Internet access towards the high speed links has been seen. However it will take some time before the tickle down effect of the high speed access to the people living in far flung areas will be achieved. Right now the concentration of the big DSL players is towards the provisioning and full coverage of the facility to the people of urban areas in big cities of Pakistan.

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in the history of Pakistan, our country has seen a very efficient and resilient telecom industry which immediately sprang into action and provided all kinds of telecom facilities to the earthquake effected areas and the people, thus serving the suffering community with all it's resources without concern for any monetary gains.

The writer has done his PhD (IT), M.Sc (Digital Electronics) & B.Sc (Communications). He is an author of the book “Understanding Telecommunications” & is a speaker at various National and International forums. He is a social activist and can be reached at his email address: irfanzafar@msn.com