PTCL Signs Contract with USFCo for USF Broadband Project in Faisalabad Telecom Region

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) signed an agreement with USFCo to provide broadband services in under served areas of Faisalabad Telecom Region (FTR) including the districts of Bhakkar, Faisalabad (excluding city), Jhang, Khushab, Mianwali, Sargodha and Toba Tek Singh.

Under this agreement PTCL will establish 235 Educational Broadband Centres, 90 Community broadband centres in addition to provision of broadband services to 86,500 consumers in the next 18 months.

Secretary IT Hifz ur Rehman, the chief guest of the occasion, appreciated the public private partnership for the improvement of telecom sector in the country. He urged the operators to work hard and make the FTR broadband project a successful example for other regions. Talking on the occasion Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr. Muhammad Yaseen advised the operators to generate demand for the broadband services across the country through awareness campaigns and development of value added services.

Senior Executive Vice President PTCL Sikandar Naqi appreciated the efforts of USFCo, Ministry of IT & Telecom and PTA in proliferation of modern telecom services and assured that PTCL will use all its resources to make this project successful. He was hopeful that PTCL being the largest integrated telecom operator and socially responsible corporate citizen will be playing a vital role in narrowing the digital divide and expanding broadband services to consumers in less developed semi urban areas in years to follow.

Sikandar Naqi informed that broadband services started in Pakistan in 2001 and third party operators were encouraged to provide DSL based broadband services on local loop sharing basis. Till 2007, there were only 40,000 broadband DSL customers. PTCL entered the market to provide DSL broadband services in 2007 and revolutionized the sector by creating demand through attractive value added services, tariff plans and high quality service. In two years time, PTCL has achieved a customer base of around 200, 000 with countrywide presence. The company is offering DSL services to the students at 30% discount as part of the corporate social responsibility program to ensure availability of data services at affordable rates.  

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on Apr 29 2009. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry