President issues directives to pursue 3G technology soon

President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday directed for the formation of a committee comprising of Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Water andPower Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and the representatives of the private sector to go through the proposal about launching the third generation technology (3G technology) prepared by the information technology (IT) Ministry which must submit their recommendations to the government at the earliest.
The president issued these directives while chairing a briefing held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, besides directing to convene a follow-up meeting to discuss this issue further. Briefing the meeting on the up-gradation of telecom sector of the country, Secretary IT and Telecom Saeed Ahmed Khan informed that around 40 per cent of the total international minutes terminated in Pakistan were coming into the country through “grey channels” causing significant loss to the telecom sector revenue. It was also informed that the existing mobile phone services were based on second generation technology and Pakistan was lagging behind in broadband service. Wireless broadband solutions with latest technology especially 3G could fill this gap, it was told. It was informed that more than 85 per cent of the operators in the world have deployed 3G technologies due to its better coverage and faster data transfer abilities.
The meeting was attended amongst others by Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs, Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Water & Power, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Federal secretaries of Finance and IT divisions, Chairman PEMRA Dr Abdul Jabbar, Chairman PTA Muhammad Yasin, Chairman NTC Brig (R) M. Younas and other senior officials.