Teletimes International organized a Seminar in collaboration with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) atIslamabadtoday on “What’s Ahead in Telecommunication forPakistan”. The primary theme of the Seminar was to deliberate on future services and technologies for creating new opportunities across all segments of society, along with its associated challenges and strategies. ChairmanPTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, was the Chief Guest of this occasion while, Mr. Khalid Athar, Chief Editor Teletimes, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar, Member TechnicalPTA, IT & telecom industry experts, CEOs of telecom companies, academia and media representatives also attended the Seminar.
Speaking at the occasion, ChairmanPTA, Dr. Mohammed Yaseen said thatPakistanhas emerged as one of the leading markets in telecommunications. However, it is imperative that we keep on moving forward for further development of the sector bringing more value to it. Arrangement of such events is surely an important step for sharing and identifying the future areas.
Chairman added that our potential for broadband success is driven by a number of factors.PTAas a regulator has an imperative role in ensuring continuous augmentation of broadband inPakistan. Though the principal duty with regards to broadband is to maintain a competitive broadband market, yet regulatory actions and strategies regarding broadband are supposed to reflect on the driving forces in form of expanding access, enhancing Citizen Digital Skills, Promoting Local Content and increasing value addition inside the Network (Intelligent Network) and services. He said Wireless Broadband is surely an important area of consideration for the industry in future. People are interested in mobility and connectivity at the same time. We will be observing new era of wireless broadband in the country.
ChairmanPTAalso emphasized on improved quality of telecom systems and services in future, and focus on telecommunication not only as an element of support but also as a driving force of economic growth. He said, that given the state of economy, population growth and other socio-economic indicators,PTAhas envisioned that total telecom investments will reach US$ 2.4 billion by 2020, whereas the Telecom sector revenues would cross Rs. 620 billion by the same year. In the wake of growing trend of the mobile services, it can be predicted that the fixed line subscribers would more or less maintain the 5 million averages till 2020, while the broadband subscribers are expected to reach 19.5 million. The mobile subscribers are expected to be around 161 million.
Chairman further added that, the frequency harmonization is extremely important to achieve benefits of rapid development in wireless technologies; making it imperative for administrations allows changes in frequency assignments in national interest. Several countries have formulated Spectrum Re-farming Policy Framework. In order to promote wireless broadband dissemination in rural areas, thePTAwould plan ahead to devise national spectrum re-farming strategy. I strongly believe that the rapid growth along with future endeavours is beginning of reaping the associated business, entrepreneurship and social benefits of this exponential ICT infrastructure. It is the time to open doors of opportunities to our young innovative minds; and bridge the unseen gaps, he added.
During the Seminar, Mr. Fan Yunjun, CEO CMPak, Mr. Adil Rauf, CEO Alcatel-Lucent Pakistan, Mr. Naeem Zamindar, CEO Wateen Telecom, Mr. Zia Imran Managing Director PSEB, Mr. Wilson Wang, Deputy CEO Huawei Pakistan, Mr. Faisal Ansari, Head of Customer Team NSN, Ms. Anjum Nida Rehman, Director Corporate Communications Telenor and Mr. Adnan Shahid, CIO Ideogeny also shared their expert thoughts on future of telecommunication in the country. They highlighted areas of mobile technologies, broadband, consumer lifestyles, smart phones, mobile content, services and applications.
In his closing remarks, ChairmanPTAappreciated the efforts of organizers organizing the event while inviting multi-stakeholders to deliberate on future of digital society in the country. At the end of Seminar ChairmanPTAdistributed the souvenirs among the participants.
