KARACHI, Aug 24: The telecommunications sector has witnessed an unprecedented growth, and in the next few years, the cell phone subscriber base is expected to reach 30 million.

This was stated by the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Shahzada Alam while speaking at a forum of telecoms regulator, operators and users on Wednesday.

The growth, he elaborated, was witnessed mainly with the introduction of ‘calling-party-pay-regime’ in 2001 and addition of the fourth cell phone operator in the country.

At the forum, organized by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority, various stakeholders put forward suggestions for the betterment of the industry.

Mr Shahzada Alam gave an overview of the telecommunications industry in the country and talked about the benefits of deregulation of the sector.

He recalled that till 2000, cellular mobile penetration in Pakistan was not significant. “The total number of subscribers was less than 400,000.” It was the CPP policy which gave a boost to the sector, he added.

In 2004, he said, activation charges were reduced from Rs 2,000 to Rs 1,000.

Mr Alam further said there were at least three factors which made the development of the telecommunication sector in Sindh very difficult.

He added that these sectors included scattered population in rural areas, non-availability of electricity in villages and inadequacy of infrastructure in the interior of Sindh.

The PTA chairman said during the past two years, some very important milestones had been achieved for development of the telecommunications sector.

He hoped that the results of market liberalization would be more visible during the coming years.

Others who spoke at the forum included Sindh governor Dr Ishratul Ibad; the chief executive officer of Callmate Telips, Ajmal Ansari; the chief executive officer of Cybernet, Ansarul Haque; the chief executive officer of Telecard, Fazal Hussain and Khushbukht Shujaat.