ISLAMABAD, May 30: The Pakistan Telecommunications Company (PTCL) has adopted a new system to facilitate subscribers in terms of reliability and speed in telecommunication related services like tele-medicine, internet, telephones etc.

Pakistan has become the first country in South Asia to have switched over to Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology.

Information technology minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari formally inaugurated the new system at the PTCL headquarters on Friday.

He said DWDM would help PTCL use its existing infrastructure to meet the overwhelming demand by partitioning and maintaining different dedicated wavelengths for different customers.

Being appreciative of the PTCL efforts in this regard, Mr Leghari also warned the company of the competition which the telecommunication sector would be facing after its deregulation.

He also hoped that Pakistan, being the first country to incorporate DWDM in its telecommunication sector, would be in a position to offer immense investment in the sector.

He urged other Chinese companies to invest in Pakistan, assuring them that the government would extend maximum facilities to foreign investors. He hopped that an expanded IT sector would create a number of job opportunities for the Pakistani youth.

Lauding the role of China in the overall development of the country, the minister said: “Every time we have some problem, we look up to our trusted friendship with China which had never betrayed us.”

Chinese ambassador Zhang Chun Xiang, speaking on the occasion, said the inauguration of DWDM would go a long way in strengthening the existing Sino-Pakistan relations.

PTCL chairman Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa said the inauguration of the project would not only cement relations between Pakistan and China, but also put the country on Information Technology Superhighway.

He said with the modernization of the information technology and telecommunication infrastructure of the country, services such as tele-medicine, internet, and broadband IT services would improve.