Coming back to Pakistan after almost a decade in North America one is overwhelmed by the many changes that are visible. From thriving fast food international chains and hundreds of TV channels to new flyovers and the unheard of prices of real estate. Although many things still remain the same like the power outages, traffic that has gone from bad to worse, the plight of people in the villages albeit with one major difference the presence of wireless phones.
Interestingly, if one plots the growth of telecommunications technology in Pakistan on a graph, one would see a virtually horizontal line for the most part with a sharp rise near the present. The increase is most evident to those like me who see snap-shots of the condition every few years.
It seems that telecom technology is enabling the country to quickly come up to par with the rest of the modern world. The benefits reaped from the advent of faxes, short-messages, email, video-conferencing and so on to businesses and individuals cannot be reduced to figures or Rupees; the times necessitate that we use this technology or be left behind.
It is more apparent to an outsider like me that the misdirected and over-stretched resources of the government have not been able to keep up with the demands and hence the vacuum is being filled by the private sector just like in health and education. Just as the profits of technology have been immeasurable, so have the losses due to other causes - such as missed opportunities and delays - been incalculable.
Now private telecom providers are increasing in number and circumstances are dictating their aims. These circumstances decree growth in forms other than pushing the newest widget onto a group of people by convincing them of its conversational value. The depth and breadth of the market now has to be increased. Thus, the telecom providers are increasing coverage, not just facilities, and increasing the customer base as opposed to increasing the revenues from the existing customers.
This wave of change is benefiting the rural populace both directly and indirectly. Not only can they now get in touch with their near and dear ones in far-off places, they can be a part of the business world where previously the contact had been third or fourth-hand.
Each of the major industry of the rural areas, from mining and handicraft to agriculture and fishing, has always been dependant on a long chain of middle-men. Although the mode of transportation has changed from camels and mules to speedier trucks and lorries, the problems faced by them have not lessened in scope.
Government and non-government organisations (NGO) have been trying their utmost to alleviate the living standards of the rural population by supplying them with means of finding opportunities where their resources could be best utilised. Nevertheless, they all had to labour under severe handicaps imposed upon them by the gaps in the infrastructure.
The distributors for farm produce, handicraft and carpets all follow the model where they place their orders by travelling themselves to each rural community and then making multiple follow-up trips to collect the final product. They often have to make empty rounds where changes to requirements could not percolate down to the people knitting the carpets.
The farmers of today still have to elect one person every month to go to town and purchase items of necessity, who then has to wait around for a couple of days to get his order filled. Each link in the chain causes delays and increases the chances of misinterpretation.
This mode of working creates excessive stumbling blocks in today's dynamic world of business and in no way helps a country in gaining or retaining the competitive edge.
A side-effect of the above mentioned manner in which the production line was set-up was that many of the workers along the whole line were being widely exploited as they had no idea of the true value of their products in local and foreign markets.
A second effect was that government efforts in educational, medical and emergency services could not be co-ordinated. NGO's were operating in isolation with some areas being duplicated while others were being ignored.
This is the facet which now is being revamped by the advent of the new telecom facilities. Now, the ends of the chain can finally meet, or at least talk directly with each other.
The natural results of this change would be (a) increase in productivity and (b) empowerment of the - heretofore largely ignored - common man. The fisherman in his shanty would no longer send his catch off to the city and hope it is still in demand, but would know the precise type of fish to go after, before he raises anchor.
Observe the "small town" of any developed country and compare it with the village of Pakistan. The biggest difference is that, in their case, "rural" is not synonymous with "under privileged". The reason why this is so, is that they progressed together as a group and not in pockets of well-placed individuals. While the ability to communicate with others may not have been the only reason, it was certainly one of the major ones.
The shift in methodology by which we shall soon be able to reach out and touch everyone in this country of ours is Wireless Local Loop (WLL). This format of telephony I have discovered on my recent trip to the family village in the interior of Sindh offers wider coverage with immediate connectivity at a very low cost. I do not know how the WLL telecom service providers, of which there is apparently only one in Pakistan presently, will manage to sustain themselves, the consumers in the end would be able to reap tremendous gains.
The company which is taking the lead in the proliferation of WLL technology is Telecard. I am told that Telecard has expanded its network all over Pakistan. Travelling throughout the interior of Sindh I saw Telecard phones even in villages where there were no other utilities. By spreading its network to every nook and cranny of the country the company, I believe, is playing an integral role in the enhancement of the socio-economic development of Pakistan. Now, the remote areas of the country are being provided with WLL connections where conventional land-lines would not perhaps ever reach.
Wireless connections are growing even within the urban areas as the land-line network is so saturated that continual borrowing under roads and low-hanging webs of cables are typical sights.
The impact of these changes may take a little time to reach into every corner of the country, but with the technology and products being supplied and the existence of the demand, the time would be quite short. The term "remote" would soon no longer signify "out of contact".
What surprises me most is how people manage to overcome road blocks. Even in those smaller localities that I pass through which are bereft of electric supply, villagers pay car and truck owners to have the batteries of their Telecard phones recharged.
Interestingly whilst I am able to call my family in USA from these WLL phones, they unfortunately cannot call me back on these phones. I asked one villager who ran a public call office why that was. His response was that due to some technical issue at Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation, this was not possible. I am not an expert but logically if you can call out it is likely that you call in as well. It is high time the government did away with these artificially imposed restrictions as there is no rationale behind deliberately creating hindrances particularly for a tool that is now an integral necessity. Intriguingly there are no one-way stipulations on mobile phones, which unlike WLL are expensive and beyond the reach of the common man.
As it is the poor people are saddled with so many expenses the least the government can do is allow them to communicate economically particularly when the facility is so readily available.
In any case, be the reason technical or be it regulatory, no people have ever been content sitting at the threshold when they can see what lies just a step beyond.