Syed Amin ul Haque, the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, stated on Tuesday that the telecommunications industry has garnered roughly 6.1 billion dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) from July 1, 2018 to March 30, 2022.
The minister added in his message on the occasion of ‘World Telecommunication and Information Society Day’ that revolutionary measures had been achieved in the IT and telecommunication industry in the previous three years, making it the most attractive sector for local and foreign investors.
Due to telecom reforms, the number of active mobile SIMs reached 193 million by March 2022, and the number of mobile and fixed broadband subscribers increased by 39.4%, he added.
According to the federal minister, programmes to provide broadband connections across the country were initiated through the Universal Service Fund (USF), an affiliated agency of the Ministry of IT and Telecom. By June 2021, around 37 projects worth Rs 31 billion had been initiated, with most of them having completed 50 to 75 percent of their work, he added.
According to the minister, Rs 6.47 billion is being spent on nine separate optical fibre and broadband projects in Punjab, and nine projects costing more than Rs 8.48 billion are under way in Sindh to provide high-speed internet and install fibre optic cable.
There are 11 projects totaling Rs 8.43 billion across Balochistan’s 14 districts. In fourteen districts of KPK, about 7.08 billion rupees is being invested on eight separate broadband and optical fibre projects, he said.
During the current fiscal year, Syed Amin ul Haque remarked, Rs 29 billion will be spent on 28 initiatives to provide internet services to remote regions.
In addition, nine distinct fibre optic cable laying projects are underway in all four provinces. He stated that a total of 4,746 kilometres of cable will be constructed at a cost of Rs 13.14 billion. He stated that USF has completed efforts to install a mobile network on 1,929 kilometres of major roadways.
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