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

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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.
- posted @ Friday, December 02, 2005