Not learning anything from history
The following article was first printed in The Daily Express Tribune, October 5, 2015. Around a decade ago, when I was country head (telecom) of German multinational Siemens, who were the largest provider of telecom equipment in Pakistan at that time, mobile telephony was witnessing a boom. Hundreds of thousands of new mobile phones were being…
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Spectrum auction: Learning from past errors key for successful rollout
September 20, 2015 Last week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar shared exciting news with the nation. He said the country would be welcoming more spectrum that would be auctioned within this fiscal year. Considering the response the last spectrum auction received and the large growth mobile broadband services have registered, this piece of news would be…
Read MoreRole of public-private partnership
The following article was first printed in The Daily Express Tribune, August 23, 2015. We are all rejoicing at the recent phenomenal rise in the number of broadband users in Pakistan after the launch of 3G and 4G mobile broadband. Mobile broadband users have risen from 1.9 million in June 2014 to 13.5 million in June…
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Good News – Govt. decides to release Rs 5 Bln for USF Telecenters
It is indeed great news (http://www.usf.org.pk/newsdescription.aspx?122 ) that the Government has approved release of Rupees Five billion (equal to US$ Fifty million) from Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) to the Universal Service Fund (USF), to help bridge the ever-increasing digital divide. Earlier this year on 13th January, in my blog (http://www.piftikhar.com/2015/01/utilization-of-universal-service-funds/ ) I had stated that…
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Award winning Nigerian ICT-for-Girls programs
Just before my recent visit to Nigeria, I happened to come across our IT Minister, Ms. Anusha Rahman, who mentioned that she had recently met the Nigerian Minister for Communications Technology (CT) Dr. Ms. Omobola Johnson, at the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary in South Korea, and asked her to share details of the Nigerian award-winning program…
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Utilization of Universal Service Funds
On 6th January 2015, Indian Regulator, TRAI, has finally recommended a reduction in Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) levy from 5% to 3% of the annual adjusted gross revenues. This has been done due to low level of utilization of collected funds. It notes that in ten years, out of the collected equivalent of US$…
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Spectrum size does matter
(This article was first published in Business Recorder "ICT Review 2014", 16 Dec. 2014) As part of my presentation at e-India 2008, in New Delhi, when I proudly presented the slide of regional telecom development showing Pakistan ahead of all, little did I know that it was in fact the beginning of a long era of stagnation…
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Childhood and Universal Service
Back in the early sixties when I was a school-kid – long before our Bengali brethren were alienated by military-rulers and feudal politicians, and when the relations between the then East and West Pakistanis were sweet and friendly - my father, a young Signals officer in the army, posted in Dhaka for a couple of…
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ITCN Asia 2014 – 3/4 G Impetus to growth
“This question may only be answered by someone who does NOT agree that YouTube should be opened”, I jokingly challenged the panel of eight high-profile experts sitting on the stage when a young participant at ITCN Asia 2014 (Karachi, 26thAug ’14) stood up and, lamenting the losses to the youth due to YouTube blockage, asked…
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