Over 212,000 employment opportunities have been generated countrywide in the telecom sector only by the cellular mobile operators. A study conducted by Deloitte this year revealed that over one million job opportunities have been created since the liberalisation of the sector in 2003.
It said cellular operators alone had over 9,500 employees which is 20 percent higher than the last year. Telecom sector (mobile and fixed line) has about 84,000 employees directly on their payroll in 2007.
However, the sectors has vast linkages with all other sectors where it is producing large employment opportunities such as civil work for installation of towers, support service providers, Airtime, SIM and handset retailers, jobs in fixedline and network equipment suppliers. Retailers related to the telecom sector have generated about 300,000 jobs opportunities which include direct, indirect and induced employments in linked sectors of economy.
A PTA official said the sector has undergone a considerable transformation following the award of two new mobile licenses-FLL and WLL- and privatisation of PTCL.