Pakistan wants own satellite

Local reports in Islamabad on 27 November quote Minister for Science and Technology Ataur Rahman saying Pakistan plans to set up its own communication satellite Paksat, before 2003. In an interview with PTV, he said Pakistan has turned down the opportunity to take five satellite slots in the past 15 years. Part of the intention will be to increase Internet capacity. Last year, Internet facilities were available in only 29 cities but now Internet access has been extended to 530 cities and small towns, he said, adding there is no example of this kind of growth anywhere in the world. Bandwidth used has grown from 32 to 265 megabit and costs per line fallen from $80,000 per line to $6,000 per line, Ataur said.