Most of the decision makers during early nineties were valuating their options among Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and other potential solutions, however today it is nearly impossible to imagine life without ICT.
From television to mobile phones and the Internet, ICTs have reshaped the world and offer enormous potential to improve productivity, foster sustainable development, empower people, build capacity and skills, assist individuals and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and reinforce popular participation and informed decision making at all levels.
The World Telecom & Information Society Day Theme for 2010 "Better cities, better life with ICTs" focuses on the role of Information and Communication Technologies in social and economical development of cites. The 21st century is a century of global urbanisation and cities being the hub of economic development are playing an increasingly important role in countries and regions. Acting as catalysts for a more productive and better life, ICT offers innovative solution for our cities in an increasingly converged information society.
The Information and Communication Technologies at Pakistan have grown at a tremendous pace during the last decade. Not very long ago mobile phone used to be a status symbol, but today even the lowest paid employees have access to mobile phones. The teledensity which was mere 6.25 in 2003-04 today stands at 62. At the same time the sector has attracted over 10 Billion US $ Foreign Direct Investment during the last eight years. If we correlate the Pakistan's ICT and GDP growth, it becomes apparent that GDP growth was extremely high during the era of exponential growth in the ICT market and most of this GDP growth in fact came through the ICT driven service sectors including telecommunication and banking.
The last few years witnessed a gradual shift from an agricultural economy to a more service based economy. The huge influx of people towards big cities would not have been manageable. However thanks to ICT today we have innovative solutions for traffic management, power distribution, health care, education, security, e-commerce and e-governance. People today are aware of important developments on both domestic and international fronts and are in a better position to take informed decisions. They can communicate, buy, sell and trade with the entire world; express themselves and make their voices be heard and can exercise their right to demand accountability from those supposed to serve them.
Most of the ICT growth unfortunately has been restricted to a few major big cities that can be counted on the finger tips. Even after sixty years of independence 50% of our population lives in villages and small rural areas. Besides thousands of small cities across all the four provinces even today are deprived of access to the basic means of communication and information that are taken for granted by others. Thus we witness huge disparities in the life style in our major urban cities and small rural areas.
It is the collective responsibility of the government of Pakistan as well as the Pakistan Telecom Industry to bridge this enormous digital divide. PTCL being the industry leader and a socially responsible citizen is cognisant of its responsibilities and has developed its roadmap for bridging this digital divide. Our network infrastructure is available nation-wide covering very small villages, towns and cities. We have acquired half a million DSL subscribers and over seventy thousand wireless broadband subscribers in very short span of time. While most of the broadband services providers have restricted their operations to very few big cities we are proud to mention that PTCL DSL broadband services are available at over 300 towns and cities nation-wide.
PTCL is continuously investing in latest ICT technologies and have launched several innovative products and services during the last few years. PTCL TelePresence is an innovative new technology that combines rich audio with high-definition video to deliver a true "in-person" experience. The creation of a live, face-to-face meeting experience empowers users to interact and collaborate like never before. PTCL Tier 3+ Data Center allows businesses to protect critical applications and confidential data, enhance data center operational efficiencies and is an ideal choice for companies who want the flexibility to relocate their primary, disaster recovery and business continuity sites and choose from variety of services as their business demands. PTCL iSentry is a perfect IP Video surveillance solution which enables deployment of virtually unlimited number of video surveillance cameras. It is a cost effective service which allows scrutiny of live or recorded videos from standard PCs from anywhere in Pakistan.
PTCL being the largest integrated telecom operator of Pakistan has the resolve to spread the benefits of latest ICT development across the remotest areas of the country. The affordable access to information and knowledge will hopefully improve the life style of the remote areas and will bring them into main stream economy.