Procedia Technology 1 (2012) 250 – 257 2212-0173 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.protcy.2012.02.051 INSODE 2011 Factors affecting Broadband proliferation in Pakistan and initiatives/measures taken by the Government of Pakistan Asim Jameel a , Nadeem Ehsan b , Ebtisam Mirza c , Muhammad Waseem Bhatti d * a,b,c,d,e Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering, Ataturk Avenue, G-5/1, Islamabad, Pakistan. Abstract This paper intends to study the broadband market and operators working in Pakistan, compare it with the broadband markets in other countries and identify the initiatives taken by the Government of Pakistan for effective proliferation of Broadband. The measures taken and projects initiated by the Government of Pakistan in the broadband sector have been studied. The information has been gathered by interacting with the officers of Ministry of Information Technology, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Universal Service Fund (USF) and from the websites of various organizations and companies MOIT, PTA, Universal Service Fund (USF) Company and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It has been found that though the current state of broadband sector in Pakistan is not satisfactory, Government of Pakistan is taking many initiatives to improve the proliferation of broadband. The factors affecting broadband proliferation in Pakistan have been identified and recommendations to improve the broadband sector in Pakistan have been made to the Government of Pakistan. Keywords: Broadband; Government of Pakistan (GoP); Universal Service Fund (USF). 1. Introduction The telecom sector of Pakistan was opened up with the implementation of the Telecom Deregulation Policy in 2003. Telecom sector of Pakistan has experienced a tremendous growth over the last few years after deregulation. Overall tele-density of Pakistan has increased from mere 6% in 2004 to around 62% by the end of year 2009. However, despite such a tremendous growth of telecom sector, the growth of broadband in Pakistan has remained very slow. A number of Government initiatives were taken such as, broadband policy was launched in Pakistan in 2004, MoIT conducted a detailed study of broadband sector in Pakistan and started providing subsidy to the private operators in the country and included broadband sector in the scope of Universal Service Fund (USF) Company. However, total number of broadband subscribers still stands at around 900,000. Broadband assists in delivering the socio-economic benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the public resulting in alleviation of poverty and social division from the society. The digital applications of broadband are identified as eight key enablers for all economies by World Summit on Information Society (WSIS); which are Education, Science, Government, Health, Business, Agriculture and Employment. * Nadeem Ehsan. Tel.: +92518317545; E-mail address: m4nadeem@yahoo.com Available online at www.sciencedirect.com