ISLAMABAD: The launch of a teleport company in the country is likely to provide cost-effective relay solutions to electronic media and upgraded telecast quality to viewers.

Almost two years after the introduction of the Teleport Licence policy by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), the first teleport licence has been issued to a Karachi-based firm TeleNest (SMC) Pvt Ltd.

TeleNest CEO Mehdi Raza has informed Pemra about the progress made regarding development of a cost-effective and reliable broadcast management system along with a modern uplink station which would facilitate broadcaster and content producers not only in Pakistan but also in the region.

Teleport is a facility for uplinking and downlinking audio visual programmes and signals between an Earth station and a satellite. The teleport licence operator has given permission for multiple satellite channels for uplinking and downlinking operations.

An official of Pemra said that under the 2002 satellite TV channels policy all TV channels were required to obtain their teleport licences for uplinking the contents either using the base station or their DSNG vans for uplinking followed by downloading in the target area from the satellite. “Pemra has awarded around 60 new licences of satellite channels. This facility will help a majority of the channels in cutting costs by hiring the services of a teleport company instead of investing in their own uplink and downlink systems,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2020