USF awarded Rs344m high-speed mobile services contract for Sindh

LAHORE: The Universal Service Fund (USF) awarded contract worth Rs344 million for providing high speed mobile broadband services in Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Kashmore districts of Sindh province.

The project will benefit an unserved population of 1.09 million in 271 unserved mauzas, thereby covering an unserved area of 3,996 sq km of Jacobabad, Shikarpur and Kashmore districts. The project will be completed within 12 to 18 months. Necessary steps are being taken for the development of Sindh including the provision of high speed mobile broadband services to millions of residents of Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Kashmore and surrounding areas. The ministry of IT and telecommunication has launched nine projects worth over Rs8.48 billion in the last two years focusing on improvement of network coverage and provision of high speed mobile broadband services along with a number of optical fibre cable projects in Sindh. The completion of these projects will provide facilities to 17.7 million people in 19 districts of the province. Currently, 1,900 km of optical fibre cable is being laid which will serve educational institutions, health centres and businesses, allowing citizens to access high speed internet. Further, within the next few days, a 709-km long optical fibre cable project will be launched at a cost of Rs2.1 billion, making it another important milestone in digitalising Pakistan. Sharing his views at the ceremony, USF CEO Haaris Mahmood Chaudhry said the federal minister of IT and Telecommunication, Syed Aminul Haque has given special instructions to spread the benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to all corners of the country regardless of province, region, language or political affiliation.