ISLAMABAD, March 9: A leading British telecom company has donated four satellite communication equipments worth Rs140 million to the earthquake affected areas of Pakistan.

The VSAT satellite equipments are functioning in the quake- hit region, deployed by the British Telecom (BT) to facilitate communication links which collapsed during the disaster in 2005.

This was announced following a ceremony at the ministry of information technology where IT Secretary Farrukh Qayyum and BT Global Solution General Manager Paul Falkner inked an agreement for the formal handing over of the equipment to the Special Communication Organisation (SCO).

Mr Qayyum said on the occasion that of the four equipments, one had been installed at the SCO Headquarters in Rawalpindi and the remaining were functioning at Athmukam, Chakothi and Chinari respectively.

Each equipment was fully self sufficient with its own power generator and provides eight telephone-lines plus Internet access. This enables free calls to any worldwide destination, he added.

The secretary pointed out that initially services were provided as an arrangement through equipment satellite and the hub was located in the UK.

He said the British company had not only decided to donate the equipments but had also agreed to provide additional equipments worth 150,000 UK pounds to enable the systems to work.

“This will allow permanent integration of the VSAT system with the SCO’s existing network in transparent manner,” he said, adding that additional equipments being supplied by the company as donation included seven satellite modems and co-polar feeds. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Falkner said that his company was honoured to play its part in the rehabilitation and restoration work in the quake-hit areas of Pakistan.

He said the company was also planning to further expand its programmes, including human resource capacity building initiatives, in collaboration with the government of Pakistan.