The Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari has given the assurance that the government will continue to provide level playing field to all telecom operators including the multinationals.

This was necessary to meet the objectives of making the telecom facility affordable in the country, said the Minister while launching DIALLOG Wireless Local Loop Telecommunication Service in the Islamabad Region at an impressive ceremony at a local hotel.

He welcomed Great Bear International Services for having selected CDMA and WLL operations in Pakistan. The Minister enumerated the advantages of the CDMA and said the technology is fast becoming the world standard for the WLL services.

The Minister admitted that there had been rough years in the past but for the last six years or so everything is fair enough. The transparent policy of liberalization and deregulation had attracted the record number of investors.

Huge amount of investments is being registered in the Information Technology and much more is coming than other sector. This has also resulted with the provision of employment opportunities to our youth. He said the rural areas in the country offer tremendous investment opportunities for IT companies and of course the only survival for the communicators in the foreseeable future is ‘Wireless’.

He said the government has recognized telecommunications, as the key infrastructure development pillar that has a direct link to national economy. The rapid economic growth in other sectors and the much sought after ‘fast forward’ deregulation of the telecom industry has put extra pressure on expansion and improvement of telecommunication network as the basic engine for growth.

With financial institutions like banks, brokerage, insurance companies starting electronic business, coupled with extensive and increasing electronic usage by manufacturing industry, E-commerce and other internet related applications taking off, require managing and transporting enormous volume of electronic data, the demand of telecommunications with increased capacity and speed has correspondingly increased many fold, he said.