Telenor Wins Rural Pakistan Coverage Deal

Pakistan's Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telenor have entered into a Rs. 930 million (US$11.6 million) contract to provide basic telephony and data services to the population in the yet un-served areas of Sanghar, Tharparkar Umerkot and Mirpur Khas districts.

Telenor and the USF have already signed two similar contracts earlier - for Malakand and Bahawalpur Lots.

Chief Executive Officer of USF, Parvez Iftikhar, said that an un-served population of around 1.13 million (13% of the total population of Sindh) will benefit from this project.

At the occasion Jon Eddy Abdullah said, "We, at Telenor Pakistan believe in breaking socio-economic barriers through use of communication technology, especially in remote areas of the country. We stand firm in our commitment for more such ventures with support of Government of Pakistan and Ministry of IT."

There are currently eight more projects for which USF has called for bids. Four of these projects belong to Basic Rural Telecom, Three are aimed at expanding Broadband in the unserved cities and towns of the country and one is for Optic Fiber expansion in Baluchistan. Bids for these projects are due in the coming weeks.

Posted to the site on 15th March 2009