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Huge investments needed to upgrade networks for high-speed internet(Nation (Pakistan) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mobile phone operators are aggressively working on the deployment and upgradation of their networks for providing fastest internet services to their customers against investment of million dollars on their infrastructure in next few years. The huge investments need to be spent wisely on the networks that could be upgraded further with advent of new technology in future mainly to serve the demand of users, optimally related to high-speed internet. Talking to The Nation, Danny Atme, General Manager, Networks, Nokia Pakistan shed light on various aspects of 3G technology, its trends in network infrastructure and growth in customers’ base in the future. The mobile broadband users in Pakistan increasingly demand high-speed internet service with significantly improved network coverage across the country, which indicates the greater need for investing in 3G and 4G mobile broadband networks by cellular operators for expansion of their services and accelerated socio-economic growth, he said. But the demands and its supplies to customers depict huge gap as a study “Connectivity Scorecard” found that Pakistan has a low score in mobile broadband infrastructure. The country scored 2.09 out of 10, ranking 25 out of the 26 developing telecom markets in mobile broadband connectivity. The study titled “Connectivity Scorecard 2013” took into account key criteria such as consumer infrastructure, consumer usage and skills, business infrastructure and business usage and skills, public sector infrastructure and public sector usage and skills, to measure the level of mobile broadband connectivity in Pakistan. He citied Ovum forecasts that the number of 3G/ WCDMA subscriptions in Pakistan will overtake GSM subscriptions by 2019, and there will be 103.4 million WCDMA subscriptions in Pakistan by the end of 2019, representing about 58pc of the mobile market. It also forecasts that the adoption of 4G will be more modest than for 3G for the foreseeable future, with the number of LTE subscriptions in Pakistan reaching about 6.6 million by the end of 2019. He said that Nokia Networks provides network infrastructure for building 2G, 3G and 4G networks, and comprehensive services to run the networks smoothly and cost-efficiently for our operator customers. We are committed to helping operators in Pakistan to build reliable mobile broadband networks and enable them to provide world class services for their subscribers in Pakistan. Nokia has an established Center of Competence (CoC) in Pakistan across different technologies but not limiting to 2G, 3G/4G, LTE Radio, Core, Enhanced Packet Core and Managed services. These are around 100+ engineers who are supporting projects in Pakistan and across MEA Region. This will further strengthen our position to help Pakistani telecom sector, he added. He added that Nokia has networks in leading markets across the world, including highly competitive markets such as Japan, Korea and the United States. Nokia Network is also the largest non-Chinese vendor supplying mobile broadband networks in China. Nokia has been present in country since 1947 in the form of Siemens, Motorola, Nokia Network, Nokia Siemens Networks, NSN and now as Nokia and have installed 12,000 base stations in Pakistan. Nokia is committed to provide Pakistan with the latest mobile broadband technologies. |