The Federal Secretary for Ministry of IT and Telecommunication & Chairman of USF Board, Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui has chaired the 76th Board of Directors meeting of USF. The Universal Service Fund (USF) Board has approved 09 projects of worth around Rs8.15 billion to provide high speed mobile broadband services. The targeted population is around 7.59 million people in the areas of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. The USF Board has permitted the award of Next Generation Broadband for Sustainable Development contracts to Jazz, Telenor and Ufone and Optic Fiber Cable contracts to Nayatel and PTCL for Tourist Locations’ to promote tourism in the country. Next Generation Broadband for Sustainable Development programme worth’s around Rs3.68 billion to Jazz, Telenor and Ufone that will benefit an un-served population of approximately 2.6 million and an approximate unserved area of 37,730 sq. km. Providing services to population of around 2.22 million in unserved area of 16,357 sq. km, Jazz is being granted as a contract of Shikarpur, Jacobabad and Kashmore districts in the province of Sindh, Multan and Khanewal districts in the province of Punjab and Pishin, Killa Abdullah and Quetta districts in the province of Baluchistan. Likewise, Telenor is being awarded the contract of Swat, Swabi, Nowshera, Mardan and Charsadda districts in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that will benefit a population of approximately 0.22 Million in 120 in the area of 2,279 sq. km. The Board has also approved the award of contracts under the Optic Fiber Cable programme to Nayatel and PTCL for the province of Punjab. The Optic Fiber Cable projects are valued at approximately Rs4.47 billion that aim at lying of 1,632 km of optical fiber cable to connect 228 towns and union councils thereby providing high speed mobile broadband services to the population of approximately 4.98 million.
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