User:Geo Swan/working/Telecommunications in Pakistan

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Pakistan's telecom sector experienced rapid growth in the twenty-first century.^[1] Entrepeneur magazine attributed some of this growth to the privatization of the Pakistan Telecommunications Company. Fifty telecom companies were awarded liscenses to operate in Pakistan.

According to an article published in The Pakistan Times in 2005 the telecom sector was expected to received $5 billion USD of foreign investment.^[2] It attributed the growth to:

"The growth in this sector is basically due to liberalized policy, competition, reduction in regulatory charges and reduction in tariffs of telecom services."

In February 2007 the Pakistan Times reported that Pakistan's Telecom industtry had already attracted $9 billion USD, and created 80,000 new jobs.^[3] It reported that Pakistan's telecom sector constitutes 2 % of Pakistan's Gross National Product, and was expected to rise to 3 % of GNP in the next three years.

In 2004 only 2.9 % of Pakistanis had access to a landline -- a traditional telephone connected to by wires to a central switching office.^[1] Five percent of Pakistanis had access to a cell phone. By 2007 35 % of Pakistanis had access to phone service.^[3]

All the Internet Service Providers in Pakistan have been liscensed to offer broadband internet services to their subscribers.^[3]