May 17, 2004
Islamabad: Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRCP) has expressed concerns over the low accessibility of telecom services in rural areas of Pakistan. It said that inequality was increasing between rural and urban areas in terms of access to various telecom services, mainly due to inattention of the government. The disparity is evident from the fact that out of 48,368 villages with population less than 5000, only 31,365 villages have access to telecom services. As a result, rural teledensity stands at 0.87 per cent, which is very low as compared to urban teledensity of 6.2 per cent. CRCP said this on the occasion of World Telecommunication Day, which is celebrated all over the world on May 17. The theme of the day for this year is “Information and Communication Technologies-leading the way to sustainable development.”
Mian Abrar Hafeez, Secretary General CRCP, said that all citizens must have an equitable access to various telecom facilities such as telephone services, pay phones, mobile and internet connectivity etc. However, access to telecom services is uneven in terms of socio-economic levels and rural-urban comparisons. He said that telecom services were largely concentrated in urban areas, whereas rural population was a low priority for providers of telecom services. This is evident from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority’s (PTA) figures, which have shown that 64.5% villages in Punjab, 45.14% in Sindh, 72.48% in NWFP/FATA and 75.20% villages in Balochistan were without telecom facilities. In contrast, all the 132 villages located in the Federal Capital Territory had telecom facilities. According to PTA, Pakistan has a telephone density of 2.7% for the year 2003, which is very low by regional as well as international standards. In comparison, 0.87 teledensity for rural areas was also dismally low with respect to aggregate figure.
He expressed his reservations regarding low cellular penetration in Pakistan as compared to the economies of similar magnitude. He mentioned that the potential of cellular market in Pakistan could be measured from the fact that over the last six months, there has been an increase of over 1 million mobile subscribers adding to already 3.4 million making use of this facility. CRCP Secretary General expressed dissatisfaction over the slow rollout from Mobile companies and high pending demand from consumers. However, he hoped that two new mobile companies could at least partially address the problem the rising demands of consumers.
Mian Abrar
Hafeez pointed out that the responsibilities of Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA) had increased manifold. It has to provide all investors an
equal opportunity to invest in the sector, ensure fair competition and quality
service and above all, safeguard all citizens’ interests, which was
the rationale behind its establishment. He urged the Government of Pakistan
to offer suitable investment opportunities to investors in telecom sector
to invest in rural areas.