In The Line Of Wire: Ep 10 - Parvez Iftikhar, CEO of USF
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Posted in: Featured, In The Line of Wire
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Jehan Ara, President of P@SHA, talks to Parvez Iftikhar, CEO of the Universal Service Fund, to find out about USF and the model it uses to create a collaborative fund and work towards bringing a greater benefit to the underserved areas of Pakistan.
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March 13th, 2009 at 8:25 am
impressed
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March 13th, 2009 at 10:42 am
It is so good to see such initiatives being launched in Pakistan … and running so well. Parvez is the perfect CEO for something like this - open to ideas and excited about taking it forward. Good luck Parvez! And thank you.
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March 13th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Good interview, Jehan Ara… as always.
I WOULD like to know how USF maintains and measures impact. What is done for follow up, impact analysis, gap analysis and in order to measure the actual success of a specific project?
Also, Parvez sahab speaks at various events - could you outline how such opportunities help the USF or the projects in Pakistan? There isn’t a lot written up about you at the events so we have no idea what is discussed in our favor - might be something to work on?
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March 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Thanks Rabia,you make it all possible. Wow so many questions? Thank God they are for Parvez and not for me.
What I will say is that one way Parvez speaking at events helps Pakistan is the “image” issue that we are constantly faced with. Showcasing this project results in people understanding that in some areas, Pakistan truly is ahead of other countries, and that they can in fact learn from us. I am sure it could also open up opportunities for USF to take on similar projects in other countries. Does it Parvez?
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March 13th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
[...] him onto the set of “In the Line of Wire” and firing all sorts of questions at him. In this conversation, Parvez demystifies the Universal Service Fund for us, tells us why it was set up, what it is doing [...]
March 13th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Hey Rabia, you think he is ignoring us? Must have been something you said or did!
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March 13th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Start this episode from 19:50 mins to see where the model is missing the beat when it comes to promoting broadband in Pakistan.
With tons of money available for good use, the USF should take up special projects that have the potential of broadband demand creation. Two such projects that immediately come to mind are IX and ‘fiber for IX’.
Unless we have Internet Exchanges in Pakistan, the nation will keep sucking on an ‘imported’ Internet en mass.
IX set ups need fiber between the providers. With fiber providers being very very limited in nature, there is a need for a special project where fiber is provided to the ISPs for IX purposes only.
Together, the two steps described above make the Internet ‘local to Pakistan’. This, in turn, increases the demand for local hosting which is the mother of ‘content creation’, if you will.
USF has done great in voice domain. I hope they can do even better in the broadband domain.
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March 13th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Thanks for the suggestion TM. I do believe that they are looking for some good ideas. We will make sure that the USF receive these suggestions.
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March 13th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Actually, Tariq sahab’s comment also points out another question - who decides the direction of the USF? Is it part of the mandate or part of a long term strategy?
Of course, local content creation will spur into action if the strategy TM speaks about, is put into place.. More economic hosting coupled with fewer hops to get to the site makes sense.
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March 13th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Rabia, I think Parvez clearly says that it is the Board that sets the direction - 4 people from the Public sector and 4 from the Private sector plus Parvez. They, however, do come under the MoITT I think so I guess the Ministry has some say in what strategy is adopted. I wonder if the PTA too has a role. Parvez, where are you? We need some answers please.
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March 13th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Jehan Ara - Oh I got that much - But then doesn’t the put the USF in an exclusive role, where as the underserved populations would also benefit if other ministries would also be able to guide what some of the more specific needs are on the ground.. but consultants are always in a position to guide what project would best match the needs with the potentials…
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March 14th, 2009 at 10:51 am
First of all my apologies for the delay to those who put in their comments/questions. These were busy couple of days finalising contract with Telenor for unserved areas of Mirpurkhas area (about which you must’ve read in press).
Second, thanks to Jehan for conducting such a nice interview (I almost feel flattered!) and Rabia for provising excellent webstudio along with a “Camerawoman”. Fantastic.
I’ll come to answers to the other questions shortly.
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March 14th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Regarding measuring the impact. Trust me we are aourselves very much interested to know the impact. Up to now we have concentrated in determining if the subsidy winner has delivered on his promises or not. This is done with the help of “Technical Audits” conducted usually by non-USF neutral auditors at pre-determined milestones of 25% completion, then 50%,75% and 100%. And since the phenomenon of USF is not very old in Pakistan, we have yet to see one “Lot” completed 100%. The impact measurement will certainly follow that. And I assure you it will not be in too distant future.
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March 14th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Regarding speaking at events. Well its always a debate going on within one’s mind - should we be speaking at ICT and other such events to show the world what we are doing or shoud we be going to the far flung areas and telling the people there what is being done for them? One LOVES to let the people of rest of the world know that Pakistan is after all not that bad a place. How far one is successful? Its for others to tell. In fact those in the field of Media should please tell us what more we could do to help Pakistan’s image.
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March 14th, 2009 at 11:26 am
And now in respone to Tariq Mustafa Sb’s exceellent comments:
Let me say at the outset that we in USF are open to any proposal (like IX) that will bring improvement in Broadband penetration in Pakistan. Please bring a solid proposal to us, we’ll run it through our process (including board approval)and implement it. Having said that, right now we are working on, what we percieve as, more important issues - like fiber access. Fiber will not only help Broadband, it will help EVERYTHING that is ICT. 30% of 400 odd Tehsils in Pakistan fo not have fiber access. To address this, we have signed first of the 10 contracts that we intend to sign. Bids for the 2nd one have benn called through Press. Surveys for the 3rd and the 4th ones are complete and will be advertised within the next 7 to 10 days. Its up to the service providers to match our speed!
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March 14th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Who decides the direction of USF?
Jehan rightly noted - its the Board. And thanks to the Public-Private-Partnership model, Board has representation from Government’s political side (IT Minister), Government’s Burocratic side (Federal Secretary IT), IT & T Minstry’s Technical side (Member Telecom) and the Regulator (Chairman PTA). Plus it has representatives from Telecom Service Providers - Mobile, LDI/Fixed and ISPs. Plus a representative of Consumers’ Associations. In my opinion, adding more (ministries etc.) may be counter-productive as more the voices, more difficult it becomes to arrive at decisions.
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March 14th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Role of ministries other than IT.
IT ministry is not setting the USF direction on their own. The direction is set by the policies of the government (like the Telecom Policy, USF Policy, Braodband Policy, etc.). These policies have been debated/discussed and approved by the cabinet, where all the minstries are represented!
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March 14th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
It would be good to get (if possible, within a few days of posting the video) transcripts of the dialogue. It may be possible to use Google Voice to automate some of this task, but it is worth the tedium - critical interviews like this deserve study.
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March 14th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
@Vickram - Since the content is already there, we’re using extracts for articles in the magazine itself.. Will Google Voice be that accurate? I’ve tried other software but it IS more tedious to have it done this way… Shall give GV a try..
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March 14th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
@Vickram, we will give it a shot.
@Parvez, thanks for responding to so many questions - in addition to the interview. It is refreshing to have someone who is part of a semi-government organization respond so clearly instead of evading the issues.
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March 15th, 2009 at 7:51 am
@Iftikhar Sb: “Having said that, right now we are working on, what we percieve as, more important issues - like fiber access. Fiber will not only help Broadband, it will help EVERYTHING that is ICT. 30% of 400 odd Tehsils in Pakistan fo not have fiber access.”
The technical superiority of fiber over other media for data transmission is unquestionable. However, installing fiber is almost certainly the prerogative of organisations that can wield substantial money power, aside from the technical aspects (which aren’t really all that different in complexity from almost any other technology, no matter how commonplace those may seem today).
Using broadband, though, is a mindset issue, involving as it does on the one hand devices, accounts, payments and so on to get started, some of these not being part of everyone’s daily lives, and on the other hand, its capabilities, spreading across e-information, e-learning, e-payments, e-governance, e-tc., and perhaps something we will recognise one day as e-living.
My point is that it is a little unrealistic to expect people who have never experienced some or all of these things to take to them like a duck to water. Fiber deployment is managed through centralised organisations, and this is a different mindset, usually exclusive of local involvement. Further provisions of services will naturally (organically) tend towards more centralisation and exclusivity. I think this will partly slow down adoption, and partly skew it towards elite sections of society, which is already seen in the cities.
An alternative approach will aim towards organising local people to get involved, building local networks, interconnecting them, using the IXs wisely (with audited and frequently reviewed policies), decentralising their deployment locally as traffic builds, and similar measures.
This may not look as neat on paper or deliver results as initially quick as the PPP model (public-private-partnership, not the other well-known acronym), nor is the task of identifying and nurturing local (self-help or corporatised, both) groups simple. However, it will change the landscape from the present, largely absentee, landlord dominated model, and encourage the growth of the local economy. That could possibly lead to a more meaningful outcome.
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March 15th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Thanks for your comments Vikram. You are absolutely corrrect about e-living. But all the applications that you have mentioned, require rural areas to be connected to rest of the world. Fiber will provide that. All the rest will still have to be done, as you have said, by the communities, by the society and by the Government. USF will certainly contribute its bit to some of that as well. But one has to start somewhere and therefore to start with we are getting Broadband Infrastructure built, where access is available and getting access built, where it is not.
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