MoITT Study / Forum

[Tee Emm]

MoITT is soliciting comments on the following theme:

'Is Entire Pakistan Underserved in Broadband Penetration'

The study paper is available at the MoITT site at:

http://tinyurl.com/3y6a3k

The responses could be mailed to Mr Awais Ahmad Jan <aw...@moitt.gov.pk>

There will be a discussion forum tomorrow (8th Feb 2008) at Islamabad Club Multi purpose hall at 1030 hrs  chaired by the Minister IT and a lot of stake holders are expected to participate in the event.

Those who attend the event are requested to update the forum on the proceedings if possible.

-T

--
Tariq Mustafa         MSN:t...@hotmail.com
Active Cell #        http://tinyurl.com/2ob35t
Industry Blog: http://pakng.wordpress.com

[Tee Emm]

The session is currently under progress in Islamabad. The 39 page document has some major conclusion points some of which are:

• Pakistan's broadband penetration is very low
• Currently there are around 100K Broadband subscribers which need to be taken to 1.6 million by 2010 (1% of population)
  
• This low penetration is earning bad scores for us under the WSIS measuring criteria & there is a strong need to improve the same
• Three approaches have been suggested for the GoP's intervention in this 'dismal' state of broadband affairs:
• No intervention - leave it to market; slow broadband growth expected
• Bundle with Basic Services - only rural areas will benefit; existing broadband provides will loose
• Tackle issue with a new format - dedicated efforts are expected to yield better results; divided in various phases

The document assumes or maintains that fixed broadband is a dwindling trend and wireless broadband will finally prevail (page 23). While t his is true for the last mile domain, the infrastructure is ALWAYS wired (read fiber). The guys at the MoITT needs to be pointed to this omission in consideration. Pakistan need to have a good wired infrastructure before we can decide which of the two last miles options (wired or wireless) is good for us.

The study also repeatedly mentions the similarity between low teledensity and low broadband penetration. However, the applications/demand side is repeatedly ignored. While it is true that the gap between 2.7% teledensity (from where our telecom boom started off) and current 50% tele-density was one of the reasons for the boom, it was the application (voice) that was ready to exploit this gap. In the case of broadband, a similar gap exists and this gap is what the study is considering as an opportunity. However, as obvious, the difference between our last success (in cellular voice) and current challenge is that of application - do we have compelling applications that will drive the growth riding this gap?

The document does not considers Demand Creation at all. While supply end enhancements (by way of USF subsidies etc) are more than welcome, a significant portion must also go towards demand creation activities. Mandatory use of electronic facilities in the business circles, tax cuts for ISPs interconnecting with each other, financial benefits to private TV channels to host streaming servers inside Pakistan, creation of public/open Internet Exchanges etc are all example of such efforts.

Please voice your suggestions and if there are enough inputs, we can send this back to MoITT's Mr Awais Jan as a single document jointly authored by members here.

-T

[Ashar]

Didnt see anything about DCN. Many of the better cablenet-wallas are bigger
than the ISPs listed

Ashar

On Friday 08 February 2008 16:48:42 Tee Emm wrote:
> The session is currently under progress in Islamabad. The 39 page document
> has some major conclusion points some of which are:
>

> - Pakistan's broadband penetration is very low
> - Currently there are around 100K Broadband subscribers which need to

> be taken to 1.6 million by 2010 (1% of population)

> - This low penetration is earning bad scores for us under the WSIS

> measuring criteria & there is a strong need to improve the same

> - Three approaches have been suggested for the GoP's intervention in

> this 'dismal' state of broadband affairs:

> - No intervention - leave it to market; slow broadband growth
> expected
> - Bundle with Basic Services - only rural areas will benefit;

> existing broadband provides will loose

> - Tackle issue with a new format - dedicated efforts are

> > *'Is Entire Pakistan Underserved in Broadband Penetration'*

> >
> > The study paper is available at the MoITT site at:
> >

> > *http://tinyurl.com/3y6a3k
> >
> > *

> > The responses could be mailed to Mr Awais Ahmad Jan <aw...@moitt.gov.pk>
> >
> > There will be a discussion forum tomorrow (8th Feb 2008) at Islamabad
> > Club Multi purpose hall at 1030 hrs chaired by the Minister IT and a lot
> > of stake holders are expected to participate in the event.
> >
> > Those who attend the event are requested to update the forum on the
> > proceedings if possible.
> >
> > -T
>

> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
> Manage your subscription:
> http://groups.google.com/group/telecom-grid-pakistan Browse and populate
> the community wiki at: http://wiki.telecompk.net
> -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

--
The doll's trying to kill me, and the toaster's been laughing at me.

-- Homer Simpson
Treehouse of Horror III

[Rehan Allah Wala]

I was Lucky to attend this Event.

Un Luckily I only attended the last 1 hour of it.

In my opinion Pakistan's Broadband policy should be good, however the USF's usage should
be put to top priority on actually making the USER ALIVE.

Once the USER is an Internet User, THEN only he will himself demand broadband and thus
will create the market, and this has been my Opinion from the early days of ISPAK also.

There were many who said many things in this forum, however the Best part again which Ali
Maskatia of Max proved was that since the Broadband Pakistan Campaign has started, and
others have started to actually SELL Broadband, HIS sale has also doubled and the internet
broadband users have also doubled.

I am a FIRM beliver that in our country STILL most of the people do not even know what is
BROADBAND and if they do not know what are the actual usage of internet then they wont
really want broadband.

I think that PTA and Other Ministries should require that the users of Pakistan must be
TOUGHT about the benefits of usage of Internet.

Most people in Pakistan do not even have an email account, even though they are computer
literate.

They should be told about using free open tools such as the google family products ie Gmail
which never expires, blogger, docs.google.com , picasa,flickr etc.

How they can install a small program on there mobile and start using the net from mobile,
rather then having a computer.

They should actually be told HOW to use these tools, and how it can benefit their lives if they
do use it.

Unless we actually start to teach people what the advantages are of the net, the youth will be
kept away by the parents, thinking that the interent is only evil that is a source of pornograhy
and nothing more.

My 2 cents.

Rehan

>
> The session is currently under progress in Islamabad. The 39 page document has some major
> conclusion points some of which are:

> * Pakistan's broadband penetration is very low
> * Currently there are around 100K Broadband subscribers which need to be taken to 1.6 million

> by 2010 (1% of population)

> * This low penetration is earning bad scores for us under the WSIS measuring criteria & there

> is a strong need to improve the same

> * Three approaches have been suggested for the GoP's intervention in this 'dismal' state of
> broadband affairs:
> * No intervention - leave it to market; slow broadband growth expected
> * Bundle with Basic Services - only rural areas will benefit; existing broadband provides will
> loose
> * Tackle issue with a new format - dedicated efforts are expected to yield better results;

Rehan Ahmed AllahWala
Msn/Yahoo/GoogleTalk/Email: Re...@Rehan.com

http://www.supertec.com/ - Internet Telephony Solutions
Http://www.DIDX.net - DID Number Market Place.
Don't Remember Me ? Visit http://www.Rehan.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."
By Gandhi.

[KO]

Cannot local ISP's tie up with Google - I believe they have such programs for ISP's - and offer google services - there are a lot of training videos and other material available from Google and others, which can be translated into local languages.

ko

[Rehan Allah Wala]

Pakistan market is not big enough for them to tie up with google.

At this time, If PTA or MOITT should follow

1. Captain Safeguard
2. The new Tetra Pack cartoon style campaigns.

Where MASSES need to be educated on what on earth is email and how can it be of beinfit
to them.

Remember that Minister of IT says that we have 5% computer penetration and 50% people
of pakistan are educated and yet only 4 million people use internet in Pakistan.

Every single person who has a Nokia phone or others for that matter can READ and WRITE
emails from their mobile which are over 70 million in Pakistan.

50% of Pakistan Population is also under 18

So again, we need to EDUCATE the masses on the Benefits of Internet and Telecom, and
that will automatically result in Higher penetration of internet and prices will automatically
come down when there are more users of the service.

Rehan

[Bilal Mughal]

I provided this Google idea many months back to some of the leading wings...but deaf ear is what was given in return in Pakistan but India (Airtel) found a great breakthrough on this and accepted this service idea. HEC (now) is in talks with Google and Microsoft to do something local to run their various services on their lines.

Bilal

[Babar]

Interesting observations. I dont know if telecommuting makes sense for
Pakistan but it is a big driver in other countries. In India offshore
outsourcing is another area. And then there is always entertainment
related activities (music, games etc).

On Feb 8, 5:48 am, "Tee Emm" <tariq.must...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The session is currently under progress in Islamabad. The 39 page document
> has some major conclusion points some of which are:
>

>    - Pakistan's broadband penetration is very low
>    - Currently there are around 100K Broadband subscribers which need to

>    be taken to 1.6 million by 2010 (1% of population)

>    - This low penetration is earning bad scores for us under the WSIS

>    measuring criteria & there is a strong need to improve the same

>    - Three approaches have been suggested for the GoP's intervention in

>    this 'dismal' state of broadband affairs:

>       - No intervention - leave it to market; slow broadband growth
>       expected
>       - Bundle with Basic Services - only rural areas will benefit;

>       existing broadband provides will loose

>       - Tackle issue with a new format - dedicated efforts are

> On Feb 7, 2008 7:07 PM, Tee Emm <tariq.must...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > MoITT is soliciting comments on the following theme:
>

> > *'Is Entire Pakistan Underserved in Broadband Penetration'*

>
> > The study paper is available at the MoITT site at:
>

> > *http://tinyurl.com/3y6a3k
>
> > *

> > The responses could be mailed to Mr Awais Ahmad Jan <aw...@moitt.gov.pk>
>
> > There will be a discussion forum tomorrow (8th Feb 2008) at Islamabad Club
> > Multi purpose hall at 1030 hrs  chaired by the Minister IT and a lot of
> > stake holders are expected to participate in the event.
>
> > Those who attend the event are requested to update the forum on the
> > proceedings if possible.
>

> > -T- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Afzal Anwar]

Email and all other Google services can easily be used through good ISP connections, subscribers will never move towards broadband connectivity for such trivial use.

As far as we do not advertise or create applications that require broadband access, i don't think it can ever PENETRATE into our local market. Same holds true for WIMAX as well.

--
Regards,
Afzal Anwar | Project Executive | Network Planning and Strategy | CMPAK Limited
Mobile : +92-304-5237957 | Email: afzal...@paktel.com

[Babar]

Low literacy levels are another factor which discourage broadband
adoption.

On Feb 14, 3:54 am, "Afzal Anwar" <afzalan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Email and all other Google services can easily be used through good ISP
> connections, subscribers will never move towards broadband connectivity for
> such trivial use.
>
> As far as we do not advertise or create applications that require broadband
> access, i don't think it can ever PENETRATE into our local market. Same
> holds true for WIMAX as well.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Afzal Anwar | Project Executive | Network Planning and Strategy | CMPAK
> Limited

> Mobile : +92-304-5237957 | Email: afzal.an...@paktel.com

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Muhammed Nasrullah]

AoA Gentlemen

I have not RTFA yet, but I disagree with the idea that we need to educate people for education or that there is not enough demand for broadband services.

The internet has proven its case to the people and they don't need to be told why is it good or useful for them. The major contention is the price point and the QoS that users face.

Here is a list of top 10 internet sites accessed from the Pakistan IP allocated pool (from Alexa.com):

1. Yahoo.com
2. Google.com.pk
3. Live.com
4. google.com
5. orkut.com
6. facebook.com
7. youtube.com
8. msn.com
9. rapidshare.com
10. wikipedia.org

As you can see, YouTube is #7, you don't need to be a literate to use it; there are other network heavy services running like RapidShare as well. The top 4 sites indicate that indeed search is the main activity that we perform. #5, 6 & 8 show what we all know: Pakistanis love to socialize. Finally, as a nice surprise, Wikipedia is #10, so we're not a complete waste of a nation :)

WS
-Nash

[bmug...@gmail.com]

You can't lower the price just like that there are several other industries that you need to keep in mind running in parallel e.g. You can't kill fiber bb with dsl bb. The pricing is set in conjunction to all related. If pricing is the core issue in penetration then slicing should be done by government enforcing this as a price regulation between home and corporate users where the corporate sale should not be entitled to the same price as the home user and only get 10-30% bracket-rate reduction on dsl than the fiber to increase competition and to keep the latter industry alive.

Bilal