ISLAMABAD – A tremendous growth of over 67% in broadband connections witnessed during last four years that shows a consistent growth and development in IT and telecom sector.
However, in 2013-14 number of connections was 13,205, the number of connection jumped to 15,084 in 2014-15, they reached 18,012 between 2015-16 and connections touched to 22,004 in 2016-17.
There has been an upward surge to acquire and maintain DSL connections as the internet has now become a necessity as compared to a luxury during the previous years, said NTC official.
The figures given do not include those additional 15,000 connections that were generated by virtue of migration from Time-division multiplexing (TDM) to the next-generation network (NGN) and the core operations of landline telephone functions also reflected a growth rate of five percent, he added.
This is additional growth and did not include 127,693 telephone lines that were generated by virtue of migration from Time-division multiplexing (TDM) to Next Generation Network (NGN).
To increase ICT services, the NTC has added total 41 new Districts/Cities/ sites in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan during 2013-2017. 18 sites in Sindh, 15 in Punjab, 2 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 6 in Balochistan have been added due to which growth of five percent in telephone lines was witnessed, he added.
