Is Entire Pakistan Underserved in Broadband Penetration? Yes Of Course!
Ministry of IT and Telecom has been working on the broadband woes in Pakistan. MoITT published a study on this topic which is available here. This summary of broadband situation in Pakistan discusses the issues and suggested a few approaches to resolve the problem. MoITT has been soliciting comments from public and industry — the question posed is: Is Entire Pakistan Underserved in Broadband Penetration? Yes Of Course! Rest are details but the simple answer is Yes.
On Feb 8 a discussion took place at Islamabad Club where the Minister of IT and other stake holders participated. This conference in Islamabad was continuation of the “Fix Broadband” theme. When talking about broadband problems, comparison and references to the steep increase in teledensity in last 5 years are often made. Tariq Mustafa, one of the industry veterans and blogger, shares some interesting thoughts at Telecom Grid Pakistan. Tariq points out that even if wireless broadband is the ultimate winner in context of Pakistan and other emerging economies, there is still a large wired infrastructure required to support it. Another avenue which has been pushed is the utilization of Universla Services Funds for broadband.
Another interesting angle of  supply vs demand is raised by Tariq Mustafa. He asks:
“do we have compelling applications that will drive the growth riding this gap?”
This question is important if you talk about real broadband. But here we are talking about 256K speeds so I still feel that if the prices are reasonable the new generation will be quick to take the bandwidth and given the demographics that can be significant.
Ok if you still want to get into the supply and demand - here are 2Â applications: telecommuting and offshore work.
Readers - let us know how much you would be willing to pay for broadband and what applications or usage scenario will justify that expense?
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Its not so much what one is willing to pay as how the PTA needs to change their licensing laws so that providers can afford to lay down the infrastructure to provide to the entire nation. Due to licenses being sold on a regional basis, the providers only invest in large urban areas where their ROI (considering ISPs are a business), makes sense. As such the entire nation can never be connected via broadband.
If the licensing laws change and providers are allowed to operate their broadband (wireless mainly), they would be willing to set up their infrastructure because the ROI would make sense if operating nationwide. Any losses in one region may be recovered elsewhere. Just a thought. I think the PTA is actually holding back progress rather than helping it thanks to allowing citywise licensing.
The ISPs need to look at this as a broader perspective wherein not just the ROI but a longer vision for masses’s growth & business prosperity is more important. It must be anticipated that more the customer contact more the probability to grow for both the parties.
The ISPs need to look at this as a broader perspective wherein not just the ROI but a longer vision for masses’s growth & business prosperity is more important. It must be anticipated that more the customer contact more the probability to grow for both the parties.
Only solution is cheap prices for broadband, like it has to be some where Rs. 250 to 500 rupees with 4 GB cap for 256 K connection.