PTCL revolutionizes TV viewing in Pakistan

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) (Karachi:PTC) has announced the launch of PTCL Smart TV, a technological breakthrough of the first ever interactive television service in the country.

The curtain-raiser press conference at the PTCL pavilion was chaired by Mr. Hifz Ur Rehman, Chairman Board of Directors PTCL. Also present at the occasion were Dr.Sadik Al Jadir, SEVP Commercial, PTCL and Syed Zomma Mohiuddin, Executive Vice President (Multimedia and Broadband) PTCL.

This service along with High speed Broadband Internet and voice telephony will all be available on the subscribers existing telephone lines at the same time on one telephone bill. The service will be available to households in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad from the 14th of August and will be extended to other cities and towns in due course

At the inauguration of Smart TV services, Dr. Sadik Al Jadir stated that PTCL has been providing basic telephone connectivity to the people of Pakistan since its inception in 1947. For almost 50 years, PTCL were the only source of keeping people in touch with each other in Pakistan. However the global spread of mobile communications technology also reached Pakistan and affected the spread of fixed line. Now once again, PTCL has become the first and only service provider in Pakistan, but for another type of service; i.e ‘Interactive Television’.

Syed Zomma Mohiuddin, informed the media that PTCL Smart TV promises to change the way people view television in Pakistan. “It uniquely bundles the offering of Telephony, Internet Broadband and Interactive TV all on the same telephone line. It is based on the IPTV platform, the service will enable customers to rewind and pause ‘live’ channels (Time Shift TV) so that viewers can pause a program, attend to another task and then come back to start from where they had left or view a program that they might have missed by rewinding the program.

The service will also enable them to lock and unlock any live channel (Parental Control), so that content that parents and families in Pakistan had deemed unsuitable for children earlier on, can now be blocked for their (children) viewing. In addition, the service enables people to search their favorite movies (by title and cast) and watch them (Video on Demand)”, said Mr. Mohiuddin.