Pakistan's PTCL has joined forces with the Special Communications Organization to lay fiber cable to the nation's federally administered tribal areas (FATA) in the northwest of the nation.
Under the agreement, PTCL and SCO will lay more than 600km of fiber cable in the region to allow the provision of data and basic telephone services in the war-torn region.
The FATA region has been a major terrorist and militant hotspot since the September 11 attacks in the US, but has been mostly brought back under control. In May, the region was officially merged with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Pakistani government has appointed PTCL and the SCO – both state owned organizations – to interlink different remote areas of the region with fiber under the Universal Service Fund (USF) program.
The government announced it selected the companies for the rollout due to their vast experience working in difficult conditions.