To tighten the noose around the offenders involved in cyber terrorism/crimes, the government has drafted the cyber crime bill, having more co-ordination with the National Action Plan (NAP), proposing severe punishment and penalties for such criminals.
This was stated by the State Minister for Information Technology and Telecom (IT&T) Anusha Rehman while talking to media here on Tuesday. The proposed law is being reviewed and will be sent to the National Assembly Standing on IT&T, and after its approval it would be submitted to the National Assembly for passage.
The minister said that the proposed cyber law envisaged severe punishments and penalties including non-bailable arrest for the offenders involved in cyber crimes.
Earlier, the minister also addressed at a function organised by the Nokia Networks to demonstrate its latest innovations announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in the areas of 5G, security, Liquid Applications, big data and analytics, and Small Cells.
"The government is committed to enabling the operations take the quality and coverage of mobile broadband services to new level for the benefit of greater socio-economic development," said the minister adding that the major challenge was the broadband and the rollout of infrastructure development that is going to meet all the targets. Only the auction of 3G/4G has given the country 590 percent growth rate as recognised by the international agencies.
The minister said that the telecom policy was pending for last eight years; however the ministry has finalised it and sent to the ECC of the Cabinet for approval. The policy document has given the blue print of telecom and IT growth, using all those international benchmarks which are going to take the country to the next level of the economic growth. According to the World Bank benchmark given earlier every 10 percent penetration of broadband gives 1.5 percent GDP growth, she added.
The minister said that the policy would be a blueprint for the sector development for years to come with socio-economic development at its heart and professional belief that this will mark a graduating step in the vibrant telecommunications sector of the country. She further said that the overall vision of the new policy will be "Universally available, affordable and quality telecommunication services provided through open, competitive, and well managed markets and ubiquitously adapted to the benefit of the economy and society".
The draft policy treats all important areas of telecoms, infrastructure, licensing, services and their ubiquitous adoption. The policy includes various new and innovative elements like provisions for a new competition framework satellite communication, spectrum strategy, market-based spectrum management, Over the Top services, convergence, communication security etc. Appropriate realignment in the mandates and areas of focus of the Universal Service Fund and National ICT R&D Fund have also been made to support the accelerated digitisation goal of the government for spurring socio-economic growth, she added.
She further said that the policy would help companies like Nokia and others to come and look at Pakistan, as local manufacturing market. Looking to Pakistan having a population of 20 million where they can face themselves not just selling their products but also manufacturing their products.
"We are confident that Nokia Networks' commitments and advanced 2G, 3G and 4G mobile broadband technologies will significantly contribute to providing high quality mobile broadband services at par with leading services around the world. We expect Nokia to consider in Pakistan for increasing local content in their offering," the minister added.
The minister said that government has withdrawn the ICH policy which caused 44 billion white minutes and resulted in about Rs 400 billion in 13 months. The government is determined to make redundant all such polices to give chance to business to flourish in the country.
Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Syed Ismail Shah said that the SIMs re-verification process had been completed and all un-verified SIMs were blocked. The cellular operators had submitted the data in respect to SIMs verification and after though audit, the data would be released, he added. He further said that all un-verified SIMs would be re-sale if no one owned them within next six months.
Addressing the conference, PTA Chairman said that the Nokia Networks conference has brought out excellent insights on how to achieve further mobile broadband penetration, and gave the opportunity to reiterate our ambitions to covert technology innovation into benefits for the Pakistan population.
Saeed Qadri Country General Manager Nokia Networks Pakistan said that Pakistan is an important market, and they are committed to helping the country build a reliable, secure, next-generation mobile broadband infrastructure for data traffic that, compared to 2010, will grow 1000 times by 2020, as per Nokia prediction. Accordingly, the company is showcasing to all operators here how its latest innovations can help them improve network capacity, speed and coverage for better mobile broadband experience and penetration across the country.
The company demonstrated future 5G technology for ultra-fast mobile broadband with low latency for applications such as tactile internet, connected cars and industrial automation. It also showcases LTE-M for connected cars, wearables and smart grid connectivity. LTE-A: Nokia Networks' TD-LTE-A 3.5 GHz (band 42) radio uses 8-pipe technology that delivers up to two times more downlink and uplink throughput compared to 2-path/4-path radios, enabling larger coverage area and reducing the Total Cost of Ownership by up to 30%. 3.5 GHz 8-pipe radio delivers high 160 W transmit power.
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