Bringing Real Change

Parvez Iftikhar CEO, Universal Service Fund in Pakistan, speaks to CIO Pakistan about their most recent achievements

Tell us about your most recent agreement you recently announced?
The recent ones that we have signed on the 21st July are one with CMPak and WorldCall. CMPak has signed onto provide basic telecommunication to the rural areas of Nasirabad Division in Balochistan. This is one area consisting of 4 districts and it is completely unserved except for few major towns. The second agreement we signed is for broadband, which is for a telecom region consisting of the whole Southern Punjab and 11 districts.

What is the value of the contracts?
The value of the contracts are quite large. Nasirabad, a very far flung area where deployment is challenging, is worth about Rs.1.58 billion. The geography there is one of the reasons why none of telecom operators have gone there as yet and that is why it is still unserved. That’s the bulk of the cost.  The Rs. 1.58 billion is for the rolling out of telecom service and providing telecom to each of the 648 villages of densely populated territory. On the other hand, broadband is also being served in 38 small towns through Worldcall including the 11 districts I mentioned along with 38 small towns of Southern Punjab which will be served.

It’s not going to be easy because these are the areas where computer literacy itself is a challenge. Hence there are 27 high schools and colleges in that area where there will be providing educational broadband centers. This means 5 PCs networked, along with the training of 2 teachers. Additionally they will be delivering 121 community centers where people can come and use broadband. So it’s all going to be packaged together at a cost of Rs. 785 million.

The Universal Service Fund is expanding and delivering a service which you originally promised with the people of Pakistan. How does it feel to do so?

Feels great! Infact the total number of funds that we have committed now with the major telecom operators in Pakistan and contracts has crossed the Rs. 10 billion mark, however the total investment value is even greater than this. According to our calculations, to date, our projects will cost about Rs. 17 billion of which we have pitched in Rs.10 billion. This additional 7 billion rupees worth of investment will be invested into the remote areas of Pakistan and change will take place.

What timeframe you are looking at for the telecom providers to actually rolled out these services? How long will it take before we actually get them?

Well, it depends on when the contracts were signed. The 1st contract that was signed was in the end of 2007 is already yielding results. We have impacted more than 1000 villages and are carrying out a technical audit on another 300-400 villages. These audits are essential in assessing the impact being made by the connectivity and solutions being deployed.

I’d estimate approximately 1500 villages have already been provided with services,and the rest are all work in progress. I make monitoring visits myself to ensure the work is being done.

We also encourage innovation. Bahawalpur, for example, is an especially special project because the base stations there are all running on solar power. We encourage operators to manage the natural resources available to us in the most responsible manner to have our contribution to curbing the power crisis Pakistan is currently going through.