Internet bandwidth rates slashed upto 50pc | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Internet bandwidth rates slashed upto 50pc

ISLAMABAD- Federal Minister for Science and Technology Prof Atta-ur-Rehman announced further reduction in Internet bandwidth rates up to 50 percent for the software companies, IT firms and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Addressing a crowded press conference at PID Press Centre the Minister said that government has reduced the bandwidth rate from US$ 32,000 per Mega Bit to US$ 3,600/Mb. He said that about six months ago the government had reduced the Internet Bandwidth rates by 53 percent. The Minister said that the present reduction is linked with improvement of quality of services by ISPS. He said now ISPs will have to have a certain volume of bandwidth in proportion to the lines.

He said the bandwidth rate for Educational institutions, IT and software firms will be US$ 3,600/ Mb while for ISP it will be US$ 9,000/Mb. He said the present reduction has been made possible due to bulk purchase by PTCL without undermining its financial viability.

The Minister said that for public sector universities free bandwidth and infrastructure of 256Kb/s will be provided for four years, which can be further extended for the same period.

The private sector educational institutions, he said will also benefit from low bandwidth rate at the rate of US$ 3,600.

The Minister said that on August 17, Internet was available in 29 cities and within three months it has been spread to 300 cities for which he commanded the efforts of PTCL.

Dr Atta said Pakistan will hold a major International IT exhibition in Karachi in March next in which 300 local and international companies will take part and contracts worth U$$ 200 million are expected to be signed.

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman told a news briefing that the exhibition will beheld on the pattern and scale of Ideas 2000 Exhibition and it will create 5,000 job opportunities.

He said the Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T) is organising the International IT and e-commerce event ITCN Asia 2001, jointly with Commerce Net Singapore, which is a non-profit consortium representing global IT companies. He said this will be a mega IT event, to be held at Karachi Expo Centre from March 24-26 2001. Due to its strategic location, the event would attract buyers from Asia and other countries.

Prof Atta said the event would bring the regional and global IT companies to Pakistan. There are more than 300 booths, and most of the space would be occupied by foreign IT companies and Pakistan Software Houses.

He said more than 25 percent of exhibition space has already been committed. The exhibition will display state of the art digital appliances, networking and software technologies at three exhibition halls of newly built Expo Centre.

The Minister said prominent speakers from USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, Singapore and other countries would address the two-day International Conference. He said the sessions would be organised on e-governance, e-business and technology solutions. Over 20 foreign speakers for the conference have confirmed their participation, he added.

He said the ITCN Asia 2001 would highlight the tremendous IT potential in Pakistan to the world. It would provide an opportunity to market Pakistan as a vibrant emerging power on the global IT map.
Source: The Nation
Date:11/22/2000