LAHORE ( HAFEEZ REPORT )
With the successful conclusion of the auction of 3G/4G in Pakistan, the country is now poised to enter a new era of telecommunication services.
Wateen CEO Naeem Zamindar announced that Wateen is fully geared up to meet the high backhaul demands of the newly arrived next generation mobile networks (NGMN) with the largest operational metro-fibre in place.
With the latest data services soon to hit the market, Wateen’s network is ideally placed to meet the data requirements of all NGMNs. In anticipation of the NGMNs rollout, the company is replacing copper wire cables with a fibre optic network – traversing over 4,500kms across more than 50 cities – for the base transceiver station (BTS) sites of cellular operators such as Zong.
Of late, the shift to fibre optic cables has picked up pace, and once mobile companies have access to fibre connected networks, the possibility of genuine 3G/4G technology becomes truly viable.
He stated that Wateen’s network is available for economising the available spectrum for next generation mobile operators for high data consumtion for stationary subscribers, and freeing the new frequency for ‘mobile’ subscribers. With an eye to providing telecom consumers better and faster data services, Wateen Telecom has already entered into an agreement with Huawei together with Qubee to upgrade its network infrastructure to support 4G LTE.
Wateen Telecom Marketing GM Sohaib Sheikh said that the company’s primary focus is being the most responsive network in the country. With the onset of 3G and 4G services, mobile operators would start witnessing added load on their networks, and Wateen has many effective solutions for benefitting the entire telecom sector.
Addressing the Pakistan government and the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, Sheikh commended the government and all those involved for completing the auction in a transparent process.
The government efforts are exactly in line with the need to project Pakistan as a telecom hub for the entire region. He believed that this would be the first step, and in future, the government will utilise full national potential to serve and enable the country in becoming a regional market leader in the telecommunications sector.