Work on mega fibre optic cable laying project begins

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: An important project to deploy 16,000km long fibre optic cable has been started in Pakistan to speed up the process of digitalisation and networking.

This was stated by Tony Lee, chief executive officer of Sunwalk (Pvt) Limited during the kick off ceremony held in Islamabad. He said Sunwalk was focusing on fast deployment concentrating on quality according to ITU-T Standards. “We are always committed to the best services in Pakistan.”

About two months ago, in a meeting, Sunwalk Group Chairman Hou Xing Wang told Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Syed Aminul Haque that Sunwalk Group will soon start the project of laying fibre cable across the country with huge investment. According to an official statement about the project, Afshaan Malik, chief business officer of Sunwalk Group Pakistan has said, “keeping in view the Pak-China long-term strategic relationship, Sunwalk has fulfilled its promise by initiating the national fibre backbone project, despite the current economic situation in the country, Sunwalk is committed to providing optic cable to the people of Pakistan.”

“In this connection, the groundbreaking of Phase 1 (Islamabad to Multan) to provide nationwide fibre backbone was done on Thursday, May 18, 2023, and now we are officially announcing this great news for the people of Pakistan after the completion of the required matters related to the project,” she added.

Afshaan further stated that Sunwalk was in a process of issuing the (Right of way) ROW from Government Departments so we can proceed with our work immediately, because after getting ROW we are planning to invest $100 million dollars.

“Sunwalk Group already invested $5 million in Khuzdar (Balochistan) where no commercial fibre was available,” Malik added.

She said Sunwalk was a technology-based diversified multinational private enterprise Chinese Group and our main project is the deployment of optical fibre all over Pakistan, for this purpose, Sunwalk has acquired a TIP Licence from the PTA in the year 2002.