Telecoms and IT in Pakistan
Friday, December 23, 2005
PTCL sale , on again?
Looks like the Abu Dhabi people have managed to get major concessions, but the Privatisation Commission has managed to keep the agreed price.
==================================
Etisalat, PTCL agree to resolve pending issues
BY HASEEB HAIDER
21 December 2005
ABU DHABI — The Government of Pakistan and Etisalat have reached an agreement on the sale of 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL), ending months of uncertainties about the nation's landmark privatisation programme.
Pakistan's Minister for Privatisation and Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who arrived in the capital yesterday morning, had a one-to-one meeting with Etisalat chairman Mohammed Omram and finalised the pending issues. Etisalat appreciated the transparency of the process and the professional approach of the Pakistan government.
The Government of Pakistan appreciated the firm interest and commitment of Etisalat to the privatisation process of PTCL.
Dr Abdul Hafeez, while talking to Khaleej Times stated that a team from Etisalat would be arriving in Pakistan next week to finalise the transaction, which is expected to be completed in January 2006. He did comment on the modalities of the transaction.
It may be recalled that Etisalat had been declared the successful bidder after it had outbid China Mobile and Sing Tel by offering $2.6 billion for the acquisition of 26 per cent stake in PTCL.
Omran said: "We are pleased to announce that our talks with the Government of Pakistan representatives resulted in resolution of all issues. We are looking forwards towards participating in the dynamic telecom sector in Pakistan to the benefit of the shareholders of both Etisalat and PTCL."
Yesterday's agreement to end the three-month long deadlock comes in the wake of a reported offer by Pakistan to a staggered payment structure of up to five years, which was one of the key demands raised by Etisalat.
For the 26 per cent stake in PTCL, Etisalat has offered to pay $2.6 billion, which is more than $1 billion higher than the second bidder. After failing to meet the payment deadlines, the UAE telecom operator raised several issues to salvage the deal. Those included deferred payment structure; ability to pledge the acquired shares; right to increase shareholding via a ‘call option’ for additional ‘A’ class shares; allowing dual listing of PTCL shares in UAE; management agreement; exemption from withholding tax; waiver of duties & taxes; custom duty waiver and ability to transfer acquired shares."
Labels: PTCL
0 Comments:
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Pakistan's National Carrier Selects iBasis as First VoIP Interconnection for International Voice Services
Press Release.
==============================================
BURLINGTON, MA— December 19, 2005 — iBasis, Inc. (OTCBB: IBAS), a leader in international long distance, VoIP, and prepaid calling cards, today announced that Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the national carrier of Pakistan, has interconnected with The iBasis Network(TM) for international VoIP services. The interconnection enables PTCL to route international voice traffic over The iBasis Network, the leading global VoIP network, as well as complete calls for iBasis over its extensive network in Pakistan.
PTCL has taken advantage of the iBasis DirectVoIP(TM) interoperability solution to implement a direct IP connection between its Huawei IP Backbone infrastructure and iBasis' global VoIP network, which comprises direct routes to more than 100 countries. Huawei is one of many iBasis DirectVoIP Certified equipment providers, which simplified the process of interconnecting the PTCL infrastructure to iBasis' Cisco Powered™ network.
With the encouragement of the Pakistani government, PTCL is continuing its technology leadership by moving forward with VoIP. Through the interconnection with iBasis, PTCL is helping Pakistani people at home and abroad benefit from the lower costs of VoIP while receiving toll-quality international service. iBasis is benefiting from PTCL's extensive resources in the country and gaining greater capacity, quality, and cost efficiency for its traffic to Pakistan.
"PTCL is an innovative incumbent carrier embracing the benefits of VoIP to enhance the Pakistan's communications capabilities," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "We look forward to helping them to expand their VoIP services even while we leverage this relationship to grow our traffic to Pakistan."
About PTCL
PTCL is the leading provider of voice, data, and Internet services in Pakistan. The company has deployed an extensive state-of-the-art digital network and strives to take advantage of leading-edge technologies to deliver innovative services cost-efficiently. The Company can be reached at www.ptcl.com.pk.
About iBasis
Founded in 1996, iBasis (OTCBB: IBAS) is a leading wholesale carrier of international long distance telephone calls and a provider of retail prepaid calling services, including the Pingo® web-based offering (www.pingo.com) and disposable calling cards, which are sold through major distributors and available at retail stores throughout the U.S. iBasis customers include many of the largest telecommunications carriers in the world, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, China Mobile, China Unicom, MCI, Sprint, Skype, and Telefonica. iBasis carried approximately 5 billion minutes of international voice over IP (VoIP) traffic in 2004, and is one of the ten largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world1. For four consecutive years service providers named iBasis the best international wholesale carrier in ATLANTIC-ACM's annual International Wholesale Carrier Report Card2. iBasis was also ranked among the fastest-growing technology companies in New England in the 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Technology Fast 50 programs sponsored by Deloitte & Touche. The Company can be reached at its worldwide headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA at 781-505-7500 or on the Internet at www.ibasis.com.
0 Comments:
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Mirror for Internet F-root name server deployed in Karachi
Apnic has been deploying root name servers in geographically diverse locations. It looks like its now Pakistans turn. This is the first root name server deployed in Pakistan and should bring improvements in speed and reliability to internet users in Pakistan, or at least to those using Cybernet. The utility will only be spread out to everyone if there is peering between the ISPs.
======================================
by MASROOR AFZAL PASHA
KARACHI (December 15 2005): The Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) has deployed a mirror of the Internet F-root name server, which becomes operational in Karachi from Wednesday.
This is the first "root name server" deployed in Pakistan and would bring significant improvements in speed and reliability to Internet users in Pakistan and the surrounding region.
The APNIC is one of the five regional Internet registries currently operating in the world and provides allocation and registration services that support the operation of the Internet globally. APNIC provides Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to network operators in the Asia-Pacific region.
APNIC has co-ordinated deployment with Cyber Internet Services (CyberNet) and Internet Software Consortium (ISC).
The installation of the root server in Karachi has been made possible by the Internet Service Provider Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), with financial and logistical support from APNIC as well as hosting support by the CyberNet along with transit services.
The root servers are a critical part of the Internet's domain name system (DNS), providing information about authoritative servers for the many top-level domains like "(dot com), (dot org), (dot pk), and (dot uk).
The computers need this information to interpret URLs, e-mail addresses and perform other types of Internet transactions.
APNIC Director General Paul Wilson hoped that deployment of this root name server in Pakistan would bring the total number of root DNS servers in the Asia-Pacific region to 26, 18 of which have been made possible with the APNIC's support.
Pakistan is at the forefront of a rapid revolutionary change encompassing information technology and telecommunications, he added.
Recently, "Pakistan has observed significant growth in this sector with double and even triple-digit growth on year-on-year basis," he said. A significant contributor to this endeavour, CyberNet, has maintained its momentum towards progressive technologies with the commitment to serve the Internet community.
Such feat of CyberNet is being achieved through the transit provisioning of the mentioned root name server, substantially improving the Internet experience in Pakistan, he added.
This pioneering organisation had always played its due role, in conjunction with the international groups and domestic organisations, as a proactive promoter of Internet usage, while dynamically improving the delivery of its nation-wide services, Paul said.
He also said, "The deployment of this root name server in Pakistan is a positive example of Internet community co-ordination. The installation has involved the private sector, not-for-profit organisations and government bodies working together to improve DNS stability and Internet response times for developing countries in South Asia."
ISPAK President Ansar-ul-Haq said, "This root server will improve the Internet service in the country and save browsing time.
He said in case of outage the Web sites remain operational in the country and will not affect the Web-based services.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2005
Labels: Infrastructure
0 Comments:
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Telecard provides VNO services to other carriers
Lowering the barriers to entry...
==================================
KARACHI, December 13 (Online): Telecard is now providing Virtual Network Operator (VNO) services to other carriers in Pakistan.
Telecard, which is fulfilling the role of the alternate telecom service provider has commenced providing VNO services to other carriers, said a release issued here on Monday.
It means the other carriers can utilize the Telecard infrastructure backbone to provide telecom related information communication facilities including long distance and international calling card, PCO, WLL and BWA for voice and data to their respective customers.
By providing such services Telecard is playing its due role in the reduction of the digital divide and spreading the benefits of information and communication technologies to the people of Pakistan.
Labels: Infrastructure
0 Comments:
Firm violates fiber optic contract with Pakistan Railways
Typical DAWN report. No names, finger pointing gossip.
================================================
Firm violates contract with Pakistan Railways
KARACHI: Firm violates contract with Pakistan Railways
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Dec 13: A fibre optic line is being laid by a private firm along the railway track in contravention of the agreement reached between the firm and the Pakistan Railways, it was reliably learnt on Tuesday.
Well-placed sources in the PR said that an agreement was reached between a private company and the railways about laying a fibre optic line along the railway line between the Drigh and City railway stations.
According to map specifications, the line would be laid 5-ft deep from ground level and 120 yards away from the railway tracks.
The design and specification was approved after physical inspection by the Federal Government Inspector of Railway (FJIR). The map specification was handed over to the Karachi Division office of the department concerned and the original map was kept at the PR headquarters in Lahore.
However, the sources said that the map went missing in Karachi and the work was initiated on a photocopy of the map specification, which showed that the private firm was allowed to lay a fibre optic line along the railway tracks from Drigh Station to Keamari and Wazir Mansion Railway Station.
Work on laying the fibre optic cable was in progress and the line was being laid hardly 2-ft deep from ground level while it was exposed at some places, the sources claimed, adding that laying of any kind of line along the tracks was strictly prohibited according to rules and regulations of the Pakistan Railways. The only line – for train signalling system – was allowed to be laid a few feet away from the tracks, they maintained.
The sources said that the private firm had deposited a fee for laying the line from Drigh Station to City Station, and it had been laying the line up to Wazir Mansion in violation of the agreement causing loss to the PR’s exchequer.
They said that the matter had been brought to the notice of the railway headquarters in Lahore but no action had been taken so far.
Labels: Infrastructure
0 Comments:
SEA-ME-WE-4 news
Press release.
[ See also
http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=126219
http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1002012 ]
============================================
HAMILTON, Bermuda--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2005--Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TLGB):
-- New SMW-4 consortium submarine cable will soon provide ME-IEX customers with a new path for IP capacity to Europe and Asia for reliable, competitively-priced international connectivity
-- SMW-4 consortium members can also benefit from direct connection to the ME-IEX through the Jeddah full landing station
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:TLGB) today announced that carriers and ISPs connected to the Middle East IP Exchange (ME-IEX) in Saudi Arabia will soon benefit from the addition of international capacity via the reliable, high quality international connectivity from the new SEA-ME-WE-4 (SMW-4) consortium network, a submarine cable linking 14 countries from Europe to Asia. The ME-IEX currently links to N. America, Europe and Asia via the SMW-3 and FLAG systems and will continue to supplement this existing capacity for network redundancy and optimum reach.
STC and Teleglobe established the ME-IEX at the beginning of 2005 to serve Middle Eastern ISPs and carriers. The ME-IEX currently carries traffic for several customers from Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen and supports peering arrangements between ISPs. The exchange was the first true IP exchange node in the region to provide diversified international connectivity.
The exchange combines STC's established regional and international infrastructure with the global reach of Teleglobe's Tier 1 IP network and is backed by the support services of both companies. This enables lower total costs, streamlined operations and unparalleled connectivity. The ME-IEX ensures high availability for customers' services via a number of fail-safe and redundant mechanisms that guarantee stable, reliable connectivity.
The SMW-4 submarine cable network is to be formally inaugurated on December 13th by a consortium of 13 telecommunications companies, including STC. The network spans nearly 20,000 km, approximately half of the circumference of the globe, linking 14 countries from Singapore to France via Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Italy, and with 16 landing points, including Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as full landing where one of the ME-IEX major PoPs is located.
"New international connectivity via SMW-4 will allow ME-IEX customers to experience an even higher quality of service for their fast-growing international transit needs," said Mr. Saad Demyati The Vice President of International Telecom at Saudi Telecom Company. "Access to SMW-4 should assure ME-IEX customers that the ME-IEX will continue to scale with their requirements."
Mr. Demyati added, "SMW-4 consortium members will be able to take advantage of their consortium rights to procure full circuits and thus directly connect to the ME-IEX through the Jeddah landing station. STC encourages its fellow SMW-4 consortium members to become a customer of the ME-IEX. The ME-IEX offers SMW-4 members two clear benefits. First is the ability to directly interchange IP traffic with leading Middle Eastern operators and ISPs. Second, it provides international routing diversity for transit traffic to N. America, Europe and Asia."
STC and Teleglobe will be attending the SMW-4 inauguration event in Dubai on December 13 and are pleased to further discuss its plans and vision for the ME-IEX.
About Saudi Telecom Company:
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) was established on 2 May 1998 to take over the telecommunications operations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, previously managed by the Ministry of Post, Telephone and Telegraph (MOPTT).
With a network of approximately 3.8 million fixed lines and over 11 million mobile subscribers, and 5 Gbps IP connectivity. STC is the largest telecommunication company in the Middle East region and is currently the sole provider of telecommunication services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
STC is currently the sole provider for International Internet Connectivity to all local ISPs, and is also one of the Kingdom's leading Internet Service Providers with more than 1 million subscribers.
The company's Headquarters are located at King Abdulaziz Telecom Complex in Riyadh and its 21,000 employees operate from 13 major district offices and numerous customer service locations throughout the Kingdom. STC is 30% publicly owned with the remaining 70% owned by the Government.
STC has invested heavily in a technologically advanced digital network. Global access is provided by STC via a terrestrial fiber network that covers almost all the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and extends to connect to all neighboring countries; via its active participation and ownership in all Submarine Cable Systems passing in the region; and via satellite with direct route connectivity to more than 80 countries worldwide. Three International Switching Centers in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam provide direct communications to more than 230 countries worldwide. Detailed information about STC is available on its web site at www.stc.com.sa.
About Teleglobe:
A wholesale international telecommunications leader, Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd owns and operates one of the world's largest telecommunications networks, reaching over 240 countries and territories. The company carries over 13 billion minutes of voice traffic every year, has 219 direct and bilateral relationships with the world's leading voice carriers, is one of the largest providers of international internet transport to ISPs and carriers, and provides innovative mobile services to over 400 mobile operators.
Teleglobe delivers its mobile, voice, data and IP services solutions to mobile operators, fixed voice carriers, ISPs, and other companies worldwide. A pioneer in network services for mobile operators, Teleglobe offers a range of signaling services such as hosted applications for enhanced roaming services, as well as content managed services that enable higher revenue mobile content operations. Its international voice services combine traditional switched and advanced VoIP capabilities, while its data and IP backbone reaches over 90 countries via land, sea, and sky, connecting carriers and large ISPs to content across the planet.
On July 25, Teleglobe entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, VSNL (NYSE:VSL). A core division of Tata, India's industrial powerhouse, VSNL is India's leading provider of Internet and International Telecommunications Services and is the first telecom service provider in the world to earn the prestigious TL 9000 certification. Teleglobe is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol TLGB. Detailed information about Teleglobe is available on the company's web site at www.teleglobe.com.
0 Comments:
Monday, December 12, 2005
MMS Interconnection for Pakistan
Big 3 gang up.
bp
=======================
Pakistan's three GSM network operators, Telenor, Ufone and Warid Telecom have launched a MMS interconnection service. This would enable the subscribers of all three operators to exchange MMS or multimedia messages with zero interconnect charges. This was stated in a joint Press Conference of Ufone, Telenor Pakistan, and Warid Telecom here in Islamabad last week.
Addressing the agreement signing ceremony, the telecoms regulator, the PTA Chairman General Shazada Alam Malik appreciated the efforts of all three operators in reaching this breakthrough agreement. "This agreement is a significant development in the cellular sector where healthy competition is introducing cutting-edge value added services for customers. Praising the spirit of cooperation, the Chairman further added: "Here are competitors who understand that they are joint stakeholders in the industry, serving the cause of the customer. They are competitors but also partners in the cellular mobile sector."
President and CEO Ufone Mr. Babar Khan said that this is a break through in the cellular industry and will be exciting for the MMS users of the three operators. He also appreciated the efforts of PTA Chairman for his continuous support in the development of telecom industry in Pakistan, which is now moving towards evolution of value added services for the telecom users in Pakistan.
CEO Telenor Pakistan, Tore Johnsen, termed the agreement a "milestone" and said that it was indicative of the growing maturity of the market and the industry. Tore further added, "Together we are intent at making it easy for the customers to use advanced services and utilize the real potential of the available technology and the quality of network." He congratulated PTA Chairman on the role PTA has been playing in the development of the sector and in bringing such partnerships to life.
Hamid Farooq CEO Warid Telecom said, "MMS is one of the most promising and fastest growing Value Added Service at the moment and we expect MMS to have the same growth boom as SMS had in Pakistan. The difference it can create in the messaging service can be compared to the launch of colored television back in late 70s. I am confident that this interconnection agreement shall be the beginning of a durable and long lasting relationship among the three operators. We truly appreciate the continued support PTA is providing to the mobile operators and they have not only promoted investment in the telecom sector it has substantially protected consumer interests."
0 Comments:
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Warid wins licence in Bangladesh
Farid Ahmed, Dhaka: The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission has decided to award the country's sixth mobile phone operation licence to Warid Telecom International LLC of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The 40th board meeting of the regulatory commission approved the offer from Warid, a concern of UAE's Dhabi Group, the New Age daily reported Tuesday.
Omniah of Jordan was the other bidder competing for the licence, but its offer was not accepted.
Dhabi group, the owner of Warid, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Board of Investment in September to invest around $1 billion in various sectors in the country including telecom, tourism and pharmaceuticals.
The regulatory commission had invited proposals on Oct 5 from Bangladeshi companies, joint ventures with local partners or overseas companies with 100 percent foreign investment to set up, maintain and operate GSM telephony for general public use.
The objective of the invitation was to ensure reasonably priced, reliable, competitive and market-based mobile phone environment with a view to improving teledensity in the country.
"The commission will award the licence to the company after finalising the procedures," said the official.
The licence will be given for an initial period of 15 years, covering the entire country. After that, it may be renewed by the commission subject to satisfactory performance.
Warid in 2003 bought a GSM mobile licence in Pakistan through auction for $291 million.
Currently, there are around 7.5 million mobile users in Bangladesh provided for by five mobile operators - GrameenPhone, Aktel, BanglaLink, CityCell and the state-owned Teletalk. Industry insiders said that Bangladesh was likely to see around 17 million subscribers by the end of 2007
Labels: Infrastructure
0 Comments:
TWA Cable from Karachi to UAE completed.
e-marine lays new cable linking UAE- Pakistan
Dec 6, 2005 - 08:02 -
Abu Dhabi, 06 Dec. 05 (WAM)-- Emirates Telecommunications & Marine Services FZE- e-marine- a subsidiary of Etisalat, has announced the completion of a new submarine cable connecting UAE and Pakistan, branching to Oman.
The project to lay over 1200 kms of submarine cable, awarded to e-marine by Tyco and owned by Trans World Associates (TWA), Pakistan, was completed ahead of planned schedule.
Omar Jassim Bin Kalban, CEO, e-marine, said: "Our vessels and people have once again shown their expertise and leadership in our field by completing the project successfully in a record time. This project saw our Cableship Umm Al Anber landing the cable at Fujairah before proceeding to lay the cable till Karachi.
A branching unit was included and another cable laid connecting Al Seeb in Oman to the main cable." "This cable will boost the available bandwidth between the UAE and Pakistan, and will result in convenience and benefit for telecom and Internet users. With recent additions to bandwidth, we are positive that users across the region will be able to enjoy the benefit of fast and efficient connectivity through submarine cables", he added.
Labels: Infrastructure
0 Comments:
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
An ode to President George W Bush
Ok, so this doesn't really seem related to the subject matter of this Blog, but stay with me. It is.
===================
from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4501132.stm
< Pakistan's government is to remove a poem from a school textbook after it emerged the first letters of each line spelt out "President George W Bush".
The anonymous poem, called The Leader, appeared in a recent English-language course book for 16 year-olds.
Critics say it praises Mr Bush. Its rhyming couplets describe someone "solid as steel, strong in his faith". >
============================
No one seems to know where this poem came from. The BBC reports that someone in the Education Department downloaded it from a website.
A bit of googling produces http://www.rhlschool.com/read8n2.htm which is the poem, with spacing to emphasise the name of the Leader. There is certainly no attempt to hide the fact that this is about GW Bush.
Who or what is RHL School?
The site is fairly anonymous. 2 links to whitehouse.gov and a link to firefightersforbush.com, the news page has links to all sorts of right wing newa sites (but nothing to http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage). Otherwise no names, no nothing.
The site is hosted by Software Workshop, Inc (http://thebook.com/).
The company and server is in New York. The domain registration is hidden behind Network Solutions (something fishy here, don't you think?).
So this is what the it security community calls social engineering. A fairly well funded organisation with good engineers sets up a website to spread its propaganda. Type in "worksheet free pakistan" on the google site and the first page that comes up is ... well we will leave that as an exercise for the reader. Try "free teaching resource pakistan", or other combinations. RHL gets good rankings.
Its well funded because there are 3 listings on Yahoo and 2 on Dmoz.org - it looks amateur but the engineering is very very good. You do not get this and a huge amount of content for free.
Obviously the results are good. Getting your poem printed for free in Pakistani text books is an excellent result. One supposes that many other Pakistani teachers have downloaded material from this site.
0 Comments:
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Pakistan says rift is because of Etisalat’s management issues
Etisalat's position becoming more and more untenable. Certainly some senior Etisalat executives have been fired, but this is a major corporation. They should either pay up or formally announce that it was all a mistake and back out.
-================================-
Pakistan says rift is because of Etisalat’s management issues
BY ISAAC JOHN
2 December 2005
DUBAI — Amid rumours that Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd (PTCL) — currently deadlocked in its negotiations with Etisalat to salvage a $2.6 billion sales deal for 26 per cent shares — is weighing the options of suing the UAE telecom operator, a high-ranking official said the crisis was due to management issues in the UAE company.
Pakistan’s Information Technology Minister Awais Leghari was quoted in an interview as saying: "There have been some differences after the recent sale but these have been not due to any discrepancies on the part of Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited, but due to management issues in Etisalat." Sources close to the negotiations said the talks between the two sides centre on demands from Etisalat for more time to settle.
In the UAE, an Etisalat spokesman declined to comment on this. Asked about rumours about PTCL's move to sue Etisalat, he said he would not make any remarks on that too.
The Pakistan minister, expressing hope that the state-owned national telecom giant's privatisation deal with Etisalat would be closed soon, said the Privatisation Commission was in contact with Etisalat and was working on ironing out the differences. He also said that in contacts thus far, Etisalat had not conveyed any differences based on any action by the PTCL management.
He said that Etisalat’s investment in PTCL was not just a business deal but represented the long-term relationship between Pakistan and the UAE.
Another Pakistani official was quoted in a news report as saying that Islamabad should consider trying to salvage the deal by softening some of the payment terms. “We have a history with the UAE. If we can work around our difficulties, a deal with Etisalat could be in our best interest,” he said. He said the present crisis could jeopardise the close ties Pakistan has built over the past three decades with the UAE.
Pakistan government's deal with Etisalat to sell a 26 per cent stake with management rights in PTCL was hailed as the country's largest privatisation bid. But Etisalat has since missed two deadlines to pay the outstanding 90 per cent owed, prompting Pakistan’s privatisation commission to begin proceedings to cancel the deal. Since then, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Pakistan’s privatisation minister, has flown to Dubai to meet senior UAE government officials in an effort to salvage the deal. Sources said the issues raised by Etisalat included deferred payment structure; ability to pledge the acquired shares; right to increase shareholding via a ‘call option’ for additional ‘A’ class shares; allowing dual listing of PTCL shares in UAE; management agreement; exemption from withholding tax; waiver of duties and taxes; customs duty waiver and ability to transfer acquired shares.
0 Comments:
Friday, December 02, 2005
Iran Pakistan Fibre Optic Link
Looks like PTCL is getting its act together and diversifying connectivity. One hopes that the connection will provide transit facilities
----------------------------------------------------------
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran have decided to establish a working group to address any operational problems ahead of building an optic fiber link between the two countries within the next one year.
The two countries have also decided exchange expertise and technical know-how in the area of telecom training for which officials from the both countries would visit each other to view the status of training facilities and find ways to further coordination and cooperation.
The decision was taken during a meeting between Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari and Iran’s deputy communication minister Kamal Mohamedpour who met the minister to brief him on the arrangements made by Iran to link up with Pakistan through an optic fiber to be laid via Gawadar. IT Sercteray Farrakh Qayyum, Member telecom Nooruddin Baqai and advisor to IT Minister, Dr Aamir Matin were also present.
The countries also decided to have several rounds of talks in the next few days to overcome any hurdles and build a consensus on the proposed optic fiber link route. The Iranian delegation is in Islamabad to attend the 10th session of the General Assembly of Asia Pacific Tele-community.
Awais told the Iranian minister Pakistan was already in the process of adding redundancy to its existing international connectivity through fiber optic cables as SEA ME WE 3 was so far the only optical fiber cable connecting Pakistan to the external world and was a single point of failure for country’s international communication, vulnerable to both natural causes and clandestine activity.
He said PTCL was the only provider of national optical fiber backbone network in the country and there was a need to have back-up arrangements to meet the redundancy, diversity and resilience needs.
He added that work on three domestic alternate backbones had already started and all the three domestic backbone networks were coming from private sector initiatives, involving 15000 Km fiber and investment of about US$ 400 million in maximum 18 months.
The minister also briefed the Irnaian [sic] deputy minister on the telecom training facilities being offered at the PTCL institute. The two countries also decided to share their experiences in this regard through exchange of expertise and technical resources.
Kamal Mohamedpour told Awais his country had completed arrangements on its part to set up optic fiber link with Pakistan via any route suiting Pakistan. He said his country was also keen to seek Pakistan’s help and technical assistance in setting up an ICT center in Tehran under the International Telecommunication Union.
0 Comments:
