ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is now home to the Africa-2 Cable Project, the longest underwater cable in the world. Shaza Fatima, the country’s minister of state for information technology, announced the change Monday while responding to MPs’ concerns over the country’s internet performance.
Mohammad Aslam Abro, a senator, has spoken out against the government’s inaction in the face of technological improvements plaguing the internet. He proposed that a legislative committee look into the issue of frequent internet disruptions.
According to Shaza Fatima, the frequency capacity of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has increased in the past two years. She went on to say that there had been a 33% increase in IT exports and a 25% increase in internet users in the previous five months.
In addition, Shaza Fatima brought attention to the fact that eight submarine cables support Pakistan, one of which had already exceeded its operational lifespan. She was hopeful that the 45,000-kilometer undersea cable connecting 33 countries, known as the Africa-2 Cable, would improve the country’s internet infrastructure and fix connectivity problems. According to her, mobile broadband services are the main cause of the outages.
Senator Anusha Rehman voiced concerns regarding spectrum management, claiming that the allocation of frequencies and their investment potential had not been adequately discussed. Shaza Fatima admitted in her response that the mobile sector’s development has been sluggish over the last 2-3 years.
Some countries now offer spectrum at low or no cost to encourage growth, she said, and PTA had engaged consultants in the US to come up with new regulations.
With political instability as a key obstacle, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada expressed skepticism about Pakistan’s capacity to achieve its $10 billion IT export target.
When challenged, Shaza Fatima cast doubt on the accuracy of previous estimates and voiced her disapproval of the real estate deals involving the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA). In order to address internet issues and strengthen the IT sector, the session ended with demands for transparent changes.
