Cell phone subscribers to cross 160 million by 2020: PTA

Islamabad (APP): The mobile phone subscriber base is expected to cross 160 million mark and broadband subscribers 19.5 million by 2020. The number of fixed line subscribers is expected to remain in the range of 5 million, according to Vision 2020 of PTA.

The broadband connections have increased from 1.49m in June last year to 1.92m and this increase is mainly attributed to continuous aggressive launching of products like EvDO, WiMax, FttP in the broadband arena by telecom companies at affordable price.It said broadband will be the main medium of personalized communication from which users will be able to effectively and affordably access any service from any device or network. In the next ten years, 4G technology will usher into usage of new applications such as IPTV and Web-TV. In future, PTA will be concentrating on re-farming of spectrum to cater the increased demand of broadband and wireless technologies.It envisions telecom to become the communication highway for sharing of knowledge as well as reaching out to a large segment of population in education and health services delivery. It further said the telecom roadmap for 2020 is likely to witness 100% infrastructure where wide range of services will be available on converged infrastructure platform.

Meanwhile when contacted, an official on Wednesday said Rs. 1.13 billion have been earmarked for SUPARCO, SCO and Ministry of IT to execute 16 approved projects worth Rs 11.1 billion. The important projects that will be executed this year are construction of Cross-Border Optical Fibre Cable for alternate international connectivity and laying of OFC to connect remote areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK.He said SUPARCO would develop various laboratories for National Satellite Development Programme in Lahore.

The other projects are development of Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR), Satellite bus development facility (Phase-I), development of a Satellite Assembly Integration and Test (SAINT) and Altitude & Orbital Control System (AOCS) Center.