NTC, NSP to jointly ensure more efficient services

ISLAMABAD: The National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) would provide WAN platform and intranet services to the National Savings Pakistan (NSP) to help further improve performance.

These services would help the National Savings facilitate its 223 branches through automation project. The other service, NTC extending to the National Savings Pakistan, is the facility of gateway, which would help send SMS to subscribers.

In this regard, agreements were signed by representatives of the two organisations in the presence of NTC chairman / managing director, Brig Viqar Rashid Khan (Retd) and director general of NSP, Zafar Masood.

Khan said since its inception, the National Telecommunication Corporation has continued to provide the most innovative ICT services to all government departments. Secure ICT infrastructure provided by the National Telecommunication Corporation would facilitate subscribers in automating; thereby, improving its management and processes, he added.

Highlighting the achievements during the last four years, Khan said that the NTC is the first operator in Pakistan to establish a cloud-based national data center for public sector. It had witnessed unprecedented financial growth of 359 percent during 2015/16 and an increase in broadband subscriber base by 36 percent, he said.

The National Telecommunication Corporation has extended its services from 54 districts / cities to 87, including underdeveloped districts in Sindh and Balochistan. The number of exchanges increased from 139 in 2012/13 to 260 in 2016; thereby, registering an overall 87 percent increase, Khan added.

The NTC utilised 99 percent of its Annual Development Programme (ADP) budget in 2016/17 and it is also the first to use M2M and P2P networks for extending fixed lines and data connectivity.

It had already resumed the international gateway operations, he said. The National Telecommunication Corporation has also signed a service provider licence agreement (SPLA) with Microsoft to provide SaaS in the country through its cloud-based national data centre.

The National Telecommunication Corporation is pursuing strategic partnership with private operators in the telecom industry to bring new services for its subscribers. It has also introduced new apps such as Go-Smart and has extended 3G / 4G mobile data connectivity to its subscribers under the public-private partnership.

NTC's future plans and projects include establishment of strategically vital submarine cable landing station at Gwadar as an alternative route to the existing network. It also envisions expanding its network to all districts of Pakistan within the next three to four years.

The National Telecommunication Corporation is also managing country code
top level domain (CCTLD) for Urdu and local languages. It will continue to serve through reliable and secure telecom infrastructure to safeguard against cyber threats.