Archive for July 7th, 2008

PTA Study On Consumer Premises Equipment Maufacturing In Pakistan

Published by Babar Bhatti on July 7, 2008 under Broadband Internet, Business, Foreign Investment, Gadgets, Government Regulations, ICT, Information Technology, Infrastructure, Investment, Pakistan, Research, Telecommunications

PTA has asked for experts to bid on a study (see full pdf here) to evaluate Information and communication technology consumer premises equipment. This rather long title refers to a variety of technical gadgets. I feel that PTA wanted this study to be a generic one and avoided using common terms such as cell phones or dsl modems here and . However it would have been good for PTA to provide a few examples of such CPEs. The last date of submission is July 19. Why the haste?

I hope that the sector experts and consultants already have plenty of data to share with PTA and they will be able to come up with a high quality report. A few items from the scope of this work:

a. Define the current status of the CPE manufacturing in Pakistan
b. How much revenue is being lost by Pakistan due to import of ICT CPEs.
c. Provide proofs that current demand enough to build a dedicated CPE manufacturing industry locally.
d. Provide guidelines/procedures to be adopted on government/regulator level in order to promote local ICT CPE manufacturing concept.
f. Define a minimum amount of capital required in order to start such manufacturing facility profitably.
g. List out the CPEs that can be manufactured. In this regard consultant must also specify the areas of ICT/telecom to be focused in the first step.
h. Suggest steps to counter the threat to such local manufacturing due to low priced Chinese versions of ICT CPEs.
i. Identify the locations where this industry should be developed geographically.
k. Describe the benefits to private (foreign/local) investors, vendors, operators and general public due to this development.
l. Highlight the hindrances on all levels public or private that any stakeholder may face during start-up.
m. Scope of ICT CPE manufacturing market in Pakistan in present scenario and in future. Do we have the required manpower especially skilled needed to run the industry.