KARACHI, April 2: A consortium of foreign and local investors would invest $35 million in Fibre Optic Network, which would cover as many as 25 cities in Pakistan. This was stated in a press release issued by Global Connect Limited, which has applied for an LDI licence to PTA. “It would be the first private sector infrastructure project of this nature in the country”, the company said, adding that it intends to establish and operate an optical fibre based long haul transmission network to provide bandwidth and circuit capacity services to LDI/ Mobile and Data Network Operators in Pakistan.

The consortium comprises foreign institutional investors and leading local investors, which include Infinity Global Telecom, Trakker (Pvt) Ltd, and JS Infocom Ltd.

The proposed network would market tier-1 infrastructure based services for domestic long distance market to LDI operators rather than engage in traffic origination and termination services.

“GCL is willing to commit such massive investment on a committed timescale, however, the government must provide a policy based directive, appropriate licence classification and associated obligations to facilitate this investment”, said the press release.