ISLAMABAD: A tremendous growth of over 67 per cent in broadband connections has been witnessed during last four years that shows consistent growth and development in Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunication sector.
In 2013-14 the number of broadband connections stood at 13,205, which grew to 15,084 in 2014-15, 18,012 in 2015-16 and clocked in at 22,004 during 2016-17.
Talking to APP, an official of National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) said there has been an upward surge to acquire and maintain DSL connections as the internet has now become a necessity as compared to a luxury during the previous years.
He said figures given do not include those additional 15,000 connections that were generated by virtue of migration from Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to Next Generation Network (NGN).
He said, the core operations of landline telephone functions also reflected a growth rate of five per cent.
This is additional growth and does not include the 127,693 telephone lines that were generated by virtue of migration from TDM to NGN.
To increase ICT services, the NTC has added total a total of 41 new districts, cities and sites in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan during 2013-2017. Whereas 18 sites in Sindh, 15 in Punjab, 2 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 6 in Balochistan have been added due to which growth of five per cent in telephone lines was witnessed, he added.
