Saba Javed

More than 28 million people in Pakistan will access broadband facilities after the completion of over 70 ongoing connectivity projects, WealthPK reports. Presently, more than 70 connectivity projects worth Rs65 billion are underway in far-flung areas of the country. The schemes under Universal Service Fund (USF) will be completed by June next year. An official of the Ministry of Information Technology said since its inception, USF had awarded 123 projects worth approximately Rs124.8 billion in subsidy under its flagship programmes and empowered more than 26 million people living in over 12,000 localities in 120 districts across Pakistan.

USF has also successfully laid more than 12,000 kilometres of optical fibre, which has connected more than 600 tehsil headquarters, union councils and major towns of the country to pave the way for 5G technology. The official said all the USF projects were playing a vital role in gender empowerment and accelerating the accessibility of e-suite services including e-education, e-health, e-agriculture, e-finance and e-commerce besides bridging the digital divide in Pakistan.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk