National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) and Microsoft Corporation signed a Services Provider License Agreement (SPLA) on 12th January 2017 in NTC HQ to co-operate on developing ICT businesses and solutions for Government and Corporate customers. Managing Director NTC, Brig (Retd) Viqar Rashid Khan and Ms. Leila Sarhan, Microsoft General Manager North Africa, East Mediterranean and Pakistan, were present on the occasion.
Brig (Retd) Viqar Rashid Khan, MD NTC while expressing his views said that: ”I am pleased to announce that NTC has made yet another historical achievement by partnering with Microsoft Corporation. It shows Microsoft Corporation’s trust and confidence in Government of Pakistan and NTC. Over the last three years as per the vision of Honorable Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to “digitize Pakistan” and under the able guidance of Minister of IT, Mrs. Anusha Rehman NTC has made significant progress in providing the state of art Telecom /ICT services in Public Sector. NTC is also committed to reach out for innovative solutions to automate Government processes.
The resolve to develop partnership with national and international organizations to introduce innovative and effective services for the Government is definitely a positive step in the right direction. NTC has recently established first cloud based Tier-III National Data Center for the Government of Pakistan. Besides NTC is the first Telecom operator which has launched “NTC GoSmart app” and Machine to Machine (M2M) Services in Pakistan.
The progress made by NTC over last three years is not only recognized within Pakistan but internationally world renowned IT companies are also approaching NTC for ICT Services and Cooperation. It is a matter of great pride and honor for NTC that Microsoft has chosen NTC for ICT business in Pakistan. Besides it also indicates that world renowned companies are showing their trust and confidence in the Policies of Government of Pakistan and its good governance.
Speaking at this occasion, Microsoft General Manager said with this SPLA partnership, service providers like NTC can license Microsoft products in Pakistan. NTC can host software services and applications for their customers. Some of the key benefits of this partnership will be to deliver tailored IT services through a dedicated or shared hosting environment, provide customers with the most current and capable Microsoft platform and to have the option to focus on hosting application solutions platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and acquire infrastructure as a service (IaaS) from a Data Center Provider, including Microsoft Azure.
Pertinently during the last three years, NTC has carried out exponential technical growth to extend latest Telecom /ICT services to its valued customers. As a result of these developments, NTC has completed over 85% of its ADP projects during last FY 2015-16 and has extended its network / infrastructure from 54 districts/cities to 87 districts / cities, including 13 new districts in Sindh and 6 districts in Balochistan. Over 50% network has been shifted from TDM to IP based Next Generation Network (NGN). During the current FY, NTC will also complete 100% of its projects in time which will be a record in the history of NTC.
