LAHORE (April 26 2009): The contribution of telecom sector to the national exchequer increased to Rs 110 billion in the year 2007-08 on account of general sales tax, activation charges and other steps as compared to Rs 100 billion in the year 2006-07.

Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Dr Muhammad Yasin stated this while addressing the 2009 Global TeleCon Pakistan conference held by Shamrock Conferences International here on Saturday. It is being anticipated that the same trend would continue in the current financial year 2008-09, as telecom sector in Pakistan has tremendous potential to grow despite world economic recession, he said.

Present growth of state of the art infrastructures in telecom sector during the last four years has been the result of the PTA's vision and implementation of deregulation policy. With the help of these infrastructures, most modern information and communication services can be accessed, it would not only help the operators to make good revenues, but also subscribers to enjoy the best services at the affordable costs.

As many as 91 million out of 161 million population possess mobile phones in addition to 3.1 million fixed lines. While as many as 2.4 million are using Wireless Local Loop connections.

Although broadband market has shown 148 per cent growth during the current year yet its subscribers' base rests at 0.2 millions that indicates overall slow growth, he added. Although the broadband market has improved many-folds, there are many ways to further uplift the performance and needs to make some concrete efforts in terms of reducing the cost of the computers and customer premises equipment, he added.

The PTA has done great job in the last four to five years and achieved the most important ingredients of deregulation, which is a state of the art infrastructure and low cost access to services. He said the regulations and government intervention by introducing the policies have played their role and now the businesses and entrepreneurships need to continue by using the ICT services of communication and internet.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009