Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) through USF has launched seven more projects worth over Rs 8 billion to provide Broadband services to over 2.5 million people in the un-served and under-served areas of the four provinces, including Rs 3.5 billion projects for Balochistan.
The projects were approved at the 81st meeting of the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Fund (USF), since then, the number of projects for providing optical fiber cable and broadband services from 2018 to date has reached a record 56 and the total cost (subsidy) has exceeded Rs 52 billion, said a news release.
The meeting was chaired by Secretary IT and Telecom and Chairman USF Board
Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput while Chairman PTA Major General (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa, Member Telecom Muhammad Umar Malik, CEO Telenor Irfan Wahab Khan, Imran Akhtar Shah, Kokab Iqbal, Sibte Hassan Gardezi and other officials were present. Chief Executive Officer USF Haaris Mahmood Chaudhry gave a detailed briefing to the Board about the projects.
Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin-Ul-Haque, while congratulating the USF Board on the launch of the projects, said that whatever the political situation, the MOITT and its subsidiaries, especially the Universal service fund, continued to perform.
He said that the completion of all the projects started during the tenure of the present government was being ensured within the stipulated time while for all the projects under the rules only the lowest bidding telecom operators were selected.
Earlier addressing the meeting, Secretary IT and Chairman USF Board Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput said that the provision of broadband services to the residents of the un-served and under-served areas of the country is as much needed as for the big cities. —APP
