NTC signs IP services contract

Karachi: The National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) has signed an IP Core Network Roll Out Contract to expand its current IP services circle from three to 21 cities across the country. NTC signed the contract with the Nokia Siemens Networks.

It said that the Internet Protocol (IP) backbone is a pre-requisite for Next Generation Networks, networks designed to run multimedia and real-time applications, landmark project.

This project will enable NTC to move to Next Generation Networking (NGN) Switching and Transmission Networks to provide state of the art services, sell IP bandwidth to other operators and offer Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to its customer as well.

'Nokia Siemens Networks demonstrated its capability as a true solutions provider and we are looking forward to implementing this landmark project with NTC,' said Veqar-ul-Islam, Country Director of Pakistan and Afghanistan for Nokia Siemens Networks.

Nokia Siemens Networks will be supporting 95 percent of NTC's networks. The IP Roll Out project is expected to be completed by the mid of May, 2008 and will be operational by the beginning of August, 2008.