It is an honour to greet the Pakistani Nation on World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) on behalf of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). 17th May marks the creation of the International Telecommunication Union and hence World Telecommunication Day has been celebrated since 1969.
Today, PTCL has redefined the conventional boundaries of the telecommunication market and has shifted from a conventional fixed telephony service provider to a market & commercially driven company. Our infrastructure spreads over almost every city, town and village of Pakistan. As a carriers-carrier, we provide the core infrastructure services to the cellular, LDIs, local loop operators, ISPs, call centers and even payphone operators.
I am proud to say that today PTCL is the largest Broadband service provider in Pakistan. In less than two years of it launch, PTCL has acquired over 150,000 Broadband customers in over 150 cities and towns across Pakistan, leading the proliferation and awareness of Broadband services across Pakistan. PTCL has nurtured the broadband culture in Pakistan by making the broadband technology affordable and accessible by geographically bringing the service within the reach of a common user across Pakistan.
We recently doubled our broadband speed for all our existing and new customers at the same price, making 1 MB as our minimum offered speed. At PIE, Pakistan International Exchange at Karachi, we have a URL filtering device which blocks anti-state and anti-Islamic sites from the internet. We have also installed state of the art equipment at PIE Exchange that has content filtering system capability and shall be launched shortly.
This would enable us to restrict any specified site or content that may be viewed as unsuitable for children or any other subscriber. Another revolutionary product introduced by us is digital interactive television service for the first time in Pakistan. PTCL has brought Pakistan in the list of a few countries across the globe that offers this state of the art services to its subscribers.
We consciously provide the facility to block any TV channel for parental lock purposes. This proves that PTCL is well aware of its social and moral obligations and adheres to strict moral code and ethics. PTCL also continues to be the largest CDMA operator in the country with approximately 1.25 million V-fone customers, covering over 10,000 urban & rural areas.
It gives me great pleasure to declare that we deliver our service to the doorstep of our subscriber within 48-72 hours. Because of PTCL's customer centric philosophy, 2008-2009 has been dubbed as the year of customer care. To further improve the quality and standard of services, PTCL has taken numerous innovative steps. For PTCL, Customer comes first.
Our Improved and enhanced call center services, formation of Corporate Service Centers and One Stop Shops across the nation ensures healthier interactivity between us and our valued customers. Very soon, customers would be also able to interact with us through a Customer Care Portal where customers would be able to lodge & check status of their complaints.
Being one of the largest corporations in Pakistan are well aware of our responsibilities in the socio-economic uplift of the country. PTCL has been regularly partnering with educational and welfare organisations to pass on the benefits to the society.
To name a few, donations to SOS villages for well being of orphans, educational scholarships to the disable, collaboration with Universal service fund to benefit ill served areas, donation to Benazir Income Support program, donations to earthquake effectees and now PTCL would do its utmost to aid the recent surge in number of IDP's of swat. We help the environmental cause and have turned into literally a "Green" company by embarking on a plan to trim down use of paper in customer bills.
This would help save at least 12 million papers each month, consequently benefiting our environment. We also pledge to plant a million trees all over Pakistan and create a healthy environment to our children. I humbly take this opportunity to address policy makers, parents, practitioners, educators, business owners and civil society members to join hands with PTCL in creating awareness to protect and shield our nation from any transgressions rooted from cyberspace.