What will be the economic impact of slow internet speeds? Expert Analysis
#shazafatima #pmlngovt #pasha #internetdown #itsector
What will be the economic impact of slow internet speeds? Expert Analysis
What will be the economic impact of slow internet speeds? Expert Analysis
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00:00Our neighbor India started its IT revolution in 1950
00:03then they made IITs and today to provide IT services to the world
00:08India is one of the most powerful countries in the world
00:12Pakistan is trying to tap the IT sector
00:16and it has a lot of potential
00:17It has a lot of potential because people sitting at home
00:21can earn their daily bread through the internet
00:25Remember that this government had also done this
00:29and those people who were earning, they were appreciated
00:34In July, there was a national IT seminar
00:38In this, it was very clearly appreciated
00:41that through IT, they are bringing a bit of change to Pakistan
00:45A country which already has a lot of problems in terms of a bit of change
00:48If there is a bit of change through IT
00:51then no one feels bad, they feel good
00:53But the situation is that for some time
00:56where any kind of propaganda or lie spreading campaign should be stopped
01:02should be curbed and action should be taken on it
01:05How to do that work, that is a bit different
01:10Shaza Fatima Sahiba was asked whether there is a firewall or not
01:14The question of firewall was asked on 15th August
01:17So what did she say? Let's listen to that first and then we will talk
01:22Firewall is a cyber security measure that every government in the world takes
01:26Earlier it was a web management system, the government was running it
01:29Now it is upgraded, it is the right of the government
01:32Look at the cyber security attacks on this country
01:34The cyber security threats are evolving
01:37States need to have better capability to ensure that they can respond to those cyber security threats
01:43China and Russia have put up a lot of firewalls
01:46In China, the social media apps that we use are not used
01:49But there are many other ways to generate their economy
01:53Do we have any other alternative or not?
01:55This is a very important question
01:57But today when Shaza Fatima Sahiba was asked whether there is a firewall or not
02:00She did not use that word, did not talk about it, did not give any explanation
02:05In fact, she ignored the questions that were asked and moved on to other questions
02:09Let's listen to what she said today
02:11There was a rumor that the government has throttled the internet for some reason
02:17There was no absolute truth in it
02:19A few services of some apps were not downloading there
02:23The population of Pakistan started operating on VPNs
02:27There are CDNs in the territory of every country
02:30When you turn on the VPN, the CDN is the local cache
02:33From which the internet is coming and all your services are coming
02:36Bypassing it, you go to the live internet and go to the live server
02:41When a lot of people stop using caches and go to the live internet
02:46There is a lot of pressure on the live internet
02:49And generally the internet slows down
02:51It was a natural traffic pressure
02:53Because of which we saw a slowdown in the internet speed for a day or two
02:58The sad thing is that there are about 5 lakh freelancers in Pakistan
03:02Who come from abroad
03:04According to the annual report of PTA till 2022-2023
03:08There are about 18 crore to 19 crore mobile freelancers
03:13While the number of other broadband subscribers is about 12.5 crore
03:18Freelancers in Pakistan in the financial year 2024
03:22During March-July, through a fund of 350 million dollars
03:27Pakistan's economy earned a good foreign exchange fund
03:32According to the economic survey of 2023-2024
03:35During the financial year ending in June
03:38IT revenue was 3.2 billion dollars
03:42Now at one place we are begging from IMF for 1-2-3 billion
03:47At another place we don't know whether the firewall is installed or not
03:50And if it is not installed then what is happening
03:52And can such a thing happen with VPN or not
03:54Let's take some clarity
03:55Ali Ehsan is present with us
03:57He is the senior vice chairman of Pasha
03:59Which is basically an association of IT related software
04:04Thank you very much Mr. Ali for joining us
04:06It's a pleasure having you in the program
04:08First of all, let's clarify whether the internet slows down or not
04:12Because many people are using VPN
04:14Some social media sites, especially after the ban on Twitter
04:16VPN is being used on a large scale
04:18But can it slow down the rest of the internet or not?
04:22Thank you for inviting me to the show
04:25We will also discuss about CDN
04:29The definition given about VPN is up to a certain extent
04:34Yes, there can be a difference of 10-15%
04:38If your country's 30% population is using VPN
04:42Now, is the country's 30% population using VPN?
04:47I would be surprised if this data comes out from the end
04:52I think there are flaws in the choice of installation and software
04:59Because of this, there are losses in the IT industry
05:07The country's economy is also being affected
05:09We are not satisfied with the explanations being given
05:15Because to solve this problem, we will have to consult each other
05:21The more clearly we understand the problems
05:25The more our IT companies can consult and improve the situation
05:30We can move towards a solution
05:32Because at the moment, the problem is not being solved
05:34Mr. Ali, this is a fact
05:36If someone is spreading propaganda, it should be curbed
05:39There should be action against it
05:41If someone is doing fake news or propaganda, it should also be curbed
05:45But overall, the internet is not slowing down
05:48Mr. Shazza is saying that the government has not slowed down
05:51There have been no stoppages
05:53Do you believe that there have been no stoppages?
05:55Because your smile is telling me something else
05:57I think it is surprising that
06:00This is a matter of national security
06:05You should put these curbs
06:07You are absolutely right
06:09In the issue of digital terrorism, if fake news is being spread
06:13The country can take everyone on board and say that it should be stopped
06:19But whenever you come to a solution
06:23You see that the economy of the country is being affected
06:27Common websites and applications are not being used
06:31WhatsApp is down
06:33In the government, WhatsApp is used for communication for internal systems
06:37Where will the solution to such problems come from?
06:41And who is responsible for the damage to the economy?
06:44Absolutely
06:45A lot of companies have declared our freelancers and services as unavailable
06:54So that their ratings are not badly affected
06:57How long can we sustain this total loss?
07:03If we are earning billions of dollars, is this a big service to Pakistan in itself?
07:09The information that has come out so far
07:13That freelancers have been affected
07:15Issues are coming to the upper platform
07:17They have made profiles unavailable in Fiverr
07:20The information we have now is of the top IT companies in Pakistan
07:25We know that the top healthcare companies providing services in the US
07:31Their 200 lines were down for a week
07:34This company alone earns $50 million in revenue in Pakistan
07:38We know that the companies providing BPO services
07:42Their internet degradation is 30-40%
07:46And they can request so few services