The age of the Wireless Local Loop (WLL) has finally arrived in Pakistan. The auction of WLL frequency spectrum last August, is said to finally have marked the conclusion of the deregulation process of the telecom sector.

An indicator of just how hotly in demand WLL technology is amongst investors, is the fact that the government fetched Rs13.73 billion from the auction of it - a sum which the successful bidders were required to pay - in its entirety - in only 30 days.

The bidders were competing for the purchase of four frequency spectrums, the most coveted of which was the 1.9 GHz spectrum, which fetched Rs11.3 billion - almost 82 per cent of the total auction proceeds.

Tele Card grabbed this spectrum in nine out of the 14 regions with a total bid amount of Rs3.2 billion. Other successful bidders include the PTCL, the DVCOM, and the World Call Telephony (a company of the World Call group).

WLL phones have been specially designed for all those with mobile phone appetites and those who trip over threads of copper when vacuuming, and want to eliminate the jungles of wire tangles from their houses. These phones are in essence domestic mobile phones, with the added bonus that only land line call rates apply to them.

Indeed, the transmitting mechanism of these phones will be through telephone exchanges - similar to mobile phone technology signal towers. Hence, because their operation is not dependent on an infrastructure of copper wires running from house to house, the exorbitant cost of installing this infrastructure will be completely eliminated, and huge quantities of valuable economic resources will be saved.

The wireless factor will provide much comfort to those frustrated people, indignant at the serial disruption in their telephone connectivity because of repeated faults in wiring.

The new private sector telephone companies are claiming that the deregulation of the telecom sector will create over 8000 direct and indirect job opportunities thus, helping to alleviate unemployment in a country where the official unemployment rate stands at 8.37 per cent (but it is estimated that the real figure is appreciably larger).

The only people at the losing end of this otherwise win-win situation are our copper wire thieves, who will be deprived of the raw materials for their very lucrative business.

The Wireless Revolution will transform the landscape of rural Pakistan. Indeed, village 'kissans' will soon have a new toy to play with, because WLL phones, - since they do not require the installation of several thousand feet of copper wires, in order to stretch connectivity over to the next village-, will be able to feed these rural areas with telephone and internet facilities in cost effective, and efficient ways.

So, by the looks of it, we will, happily, no longer be familiar with the daily rural spectacle of a stream of people commuting - on foot - to nearby cities, walking, always walking on in the name of a conversation; hobbling to the nearest town for a telephone.

Also, the provision of internet facilities, through these telephone sets means that the IT Revolution will finally be able to make its long-awaited appearance in the many hamlets of Pakistan. Net surfers might well learn a thing or two about recent agricultural developments, juicier compost, organic methods etc etera, boost crop yield and exports.

One of the major players in our telecom sector is Tele Card, the company which has been a pioneer in WLL technology in Pakistan. Initially, it introduced WLL technology for its pay phones, 'Foree Fones,' and these were an instant success.

These public call offices have been set up all over the countryside. The only complaint of several villagers, with regard to these phones, has been that, since they are public phones, they do not allow incoming calls.

Thus, by popular demand, Tele Card is now planning on launching the domestic version of these "Foree Fones," which will not only allow all incoming and outgoing calls, but will also provide the international calling facility.

Since Tele Card has already been implementing this technology, and has created the WLL optical fibres infrastructure for its "Foree Fones", it will probably be able to offer WLL services sooner than most of its competitors.

It has also bought an LDI (long distance and international) license, and will be one of the different carriers competing with PTCL for clients wishing to call their 'valayeti' relatives.

The new system will give consumers the option of calling a different telecom company's calling operator's number, and asking him to connect to foreign telephone numbers.

Happily for us, the more we move away from the PTCL's monopoly, towards monopolistic competition, we are likely to see that the price of phone calls (both domestic and global) will most likely drop, and quality control will be crucial, unless the companies wish to go out of business.

Quality control will lead to production becoming more efficient. Suffice it to say that WLL phones are a cross between mobile phones and cordless telephones: their telecommunication system is wireless (like that of mobile phones), but each WLL phone set is similar to a cordless in that each set is only functional within a certain radius of its particular exchange.

So the portability that they allow is only over a limited range, compared to mobile telephones, which can be used any where in the world because of their 'roaming' facility.

Also, like mobile phones, WLL phones provide the SMS (short message service) facility and is cheaper than calling them. WLL phones also provide the caller ID function which, will allow the not-yet-initiated-into-CLI world to successfully round up unruly crank callers.

These phones may also provide a measure of comfort to irate parents wishing to squeeze their children's 'telephone time'. They will now be able to mobilize their frustrations by buying WLL phones because these phones can be operated on a top - up credit basis, just like mobile phones.

People using WLL phones can purchase prepaid cards periodically, which will allow however much calling credit the customer has purchased. That is, people will be able to control the amount of their expenditure on telephone calls by designating time periods over which they plan on using up a certain amount of credit.

Alternatively, consumers who prefer the standard monthly itemised billing system can also ask for this facility. Other interesting features of WLL phones include the facility to forward phone calls to another number, even if the phone has been switched off, or if it is in a no service area.

WLL phones will also give you call waiting alerts, and the three - way calling facility will allow you to have a three-way conversation with two different parties at the same time. That last one is pretty handy.

Developing countries like Pakistan have a great potential for telecom growth because of their relatively low tele density. The cost of adding one fixed line in the total telecom capacity is very high (22k).

Hence, WLL technology is preferred globally for network expansion. During FY04, mobile phone communication sector grew by 106 per cent. However, maintaining a mobile connection is not the optimum scenario for the masses, because of the expense of the connection and calling rates.

WLL phones will be able to solve this problem and take over from mobile phones, especially amongst the working class, because of their low cost. Analysts are predicting that among the telecom companies using WLL technology, the PTCL is likely to have the lion's share, securing about 70 per cent of the market, whilst the rest of the market will be split between Tele Card, World Call, and DVCOM.