Pakistan has crossed a vital threshold in telecommunications by taking deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation initiatives in the telecom sector. It gives me immense pleasure to learn that Worldcall will be formally launching its revolutionary Wireless Local Loop (WLL) project, having capacity of 175 Base Transceiver Stations of 3,000 capacity each, which are being gradually deployed.
This will change the face for the rural and sub-urban areas constituting a last mile solution through wireless connectivity for fixed line.
This Government is determined to give priority to rural uplift. Today telecom service is available in about 20,000 villages and by the year 2010 telecom services would be extended to all 50,000 villages of the country. This will be a great achievement.
The deregulation policy is having a profound impact on the growth of the telecom sector, wherein the private sector is playing an important role; Government is encouraging participation of all telecom operators to ensure smooth and effective reach of the service particularly for the benefit of the rural population.
We fully appreciate the potential impact of the telecommunication sector on socio-economic progress and overall national development, and the Government is committed to the realisation of the objective of access to all.
Through implementation of similar projects, a lot many more skilled and unskilled persons will directly and indirectly benefit from the sector growth. All these developments would be in line with the objective of providing the basic needs to all citizens of the country. Private sector companies like Worldcall Telecommunications Group can play a major role in providing more effective and economical choices for the people of Pakistan.
I congratulate Worldcall on their successful launch of WLL services and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.