ISLAMABAD: The Universal Service Fund (USF) on Monday awarded contracts worth Rs5.11 billion to Telenor, Zong, Ufone and PTCL under the Next Generation Broadband for Sustainable Development and Next Generation Optical Fibre Network and Services programs.

The USF meeting was chaired by IT Secretary Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui.

Under the Next Generation Optical Fiber Network and Services projects, worth approximately Rs3bn, around 1,078 km of Optical Fiber Cable will be laid out to connect 140 villages and union councils thereby providing high speed mobile broadband services to unserved population of approximately 4.7 million.

The board also approved award of contracts under the Next Generation Broadband for Sustainable Development Program worth Rs2 billion to Telenor, Zong and Ufone.

PTCL was awarded the contract to improve services in Kashmore, Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur districts of Sindh.

Telenor was awarded the contract for Chitral, Upper Dir and Lower Dir districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whereby an unserved population of around 0.7m will benefit from high speed mobile broadband services in 648 unserved villages and an approximate unserved area of 18,212 sq km.

Likewise, Zong is being awarded the contract of Karachi West and Malir districts in Sindh that will benefit an unserved population of approximately 0.1m in 36 unserved villages and approximately 690 sq. km of unserved area.

Similarly, Ufone is being awarded the contract of Mastung and Ziarat districts in Balochistan to serve an unserved population of approximately 0.1m in 226 unserved villages and an approximate unserved area of 6,324 sq. km.

Earlier, USF Chief Executive Officer Haaris Mahmood Chaudhary briefed the board members about the projects.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2020