Editing Telecommunications in Pakistan (section)

==Regulatory environment==
[[File:TWA-1-route.png|thumb|right|alt=A map showing the route of the TWA-1 telecommunication cable.|[[TWA-1 (cable system)|TWA-1 telecommunications cable]] linking the [[United Arab Emirates]], [[Oman]], and [[Pakistan]].]]
The Telecommunications Ordinance of 1994 created the [[Pakistan Telecommunication Authority]] (PTA), Pakistan's first independent telecommunications regulator, and the [[PTCL|Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd]] (PTCL), a [[State ownership|state-owned]] [[monopoly]].<ref name=TLIP/>

Due to a lack of competition, local [[telephone call]] rates were high and [[international call]] rates were even higher. During the 1990s, a call to [[United States]] cost $5 per minute (300PkRs per minute), which was not affordable for the majority of the population. In addition, [[customer service]] was poor; fixing a problem may have taken an average of 10 to 15 days. Despite this, consumers had to stick with PTCL, as they had no other options.

This prompted the government to take a series of actions to improve the service by opening the telecommunications market.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050207084418/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_05/b3918096.htm  "Pakistan: Birth Of A Telecom Revolution"], ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', 31 January 2005</ref> This was critical, but required a fine balance because opening the market and preserving PTCL were both important for the government.

In July 2003 the government introduced a ''Deregulation Policy for the Telecommunication Sector'',<ref>[http://www.pta.gov.pk/media/telecom25092003.pdf ''De-Regulation Policy for the Telecommunication Sector''], Ministry of Information Technology, Government of Pakistan, July 2003</ref> which allowed and encouraged foreign companies to invest in the Pakistani telecommunications market.<ref name=TLIP>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100904215454/http://www.pakistanlaw.net/law-articles/telecom-law/telecommunication-laws-in-pakistan/ "Telecommunication Laws in Pakistan"]}}, Bilal Sarwari, Pakistan Law website, 24 October 2009</ref> The centerpiece of the deregulation was the establishment of two categories of basic services licenses: Local loop (LL), for fixed line telecommunication within the 14 PTCL regions, and Long-distance and International (LDI), for connectivity between regions. Two sets of criteria set by the regulatory authorities must be met before an operator is allowed to start operation: one for the issuance of a [[license]] and another for the maintenance of [[service quality]].

In 2006, Etisalat International Pakistan, a wholly owned subsidiary of [[Etisalat|Emirates Telecommunications Corporation]], purchased a 26% stake in PTCL and assumed management control of the company.<ref>[https://www.nation.com.pk/28-Jan-2010/etisalat-to-pay-800m-for-ptcl-stake-waqar "Etisalat to pay $800m for PTCL stake: Waqar"], Reuters, ''The Nation'', 28 January 2010</ref>

In 2008, Pakistan was the world's third-fastest growing telecommunications market. Pakistan's telecom infrastructure is improving dramatically with foreign and domestic investments into fixed-line and mobile networks; [[Fiber-optic communication|fiber-optic]] systems are being constructed throughout the country to aid in network growth.<ref name="lirneasia_tre" /> The major growth in mobile telephony was triggered by two steps taken by Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman FRS when he was Federal Minister of Science & technology. These were to introduce a "Calling Party Pays" (CPP) regime under which no charges are paid by the call receiving party on mobile phone calls. The second was the launching of UFone as a government owned mobile phone company that competitive call rates that led to strong market competition. The impact of these two measures has been the expansion of mobile telephony from 0.3 million mobile phones in 2001 to 160 million mobile phones in 2018.<ref>https://ei.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/import-content/gg2-atta-ur-rahman-PPT.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

Pakistan's telecommunications infrastructure includes [[microwave]] radio relay, [[coaxial cable]], [[fiber-optic cable]], [[Cellular network|cellular]], and [[satellite]] networks. Pakistan is connected to the rest of the world through nine submarine cable systems (SEA-ME-WE-3, SEA-ME-WE-4, SEA-ME-WE-5, I-ME-WE, AAE, TW-1, SRG, PEACE and Africa-1)  that provide links to Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe;<ref>{{cite web| url = https://propakistani.pk/2018/04/13/pakistan-to-be-linked-with-china-backed-submarine-cable-with-up-to-60tb-capacity/| title = Pakistan joins PEACE cable| date = 13 April 2018}}</ref> 3 [[Intelsat]] satellite earth stations (1 [[Atlantic Ocean]] and 2 [[Indian Ocean]]); 3 operational international gateway exchanges (2 at [[Karachi]] and 1 at [[Islamabad]]); and microwave radio relay to neighboring countries.<ref name=CIA-WFB-Pakistan/>