The deregulation of the telecom sector in Pakistan has brought with it a phenomenal growth in the number of telecom operators and subscribers in Pakistan over the last couple of years. This rapid growth in the number of subscribers coupled with reduced tariffs is driving the rise in both international voice and data traffic into and out of the country. There is an urgent need for the provision of high quality and reliable international connectivity for the country.

Hence, Orascom Telecom of Egypt, in collaboration with Saif Group of Pakistan, co-founded Transworld Associates (Pvt.) Ltd. to enable telecom operators in Pakistan to connect to the rest of the world through a reliable high quality undersea fiber optic cable system. Using a state-of-the-art network with DWDM technology, the TWA-1 cable system has an ultimate capacity of more than 1.28 Tbps with an initial capacity of 20 Gbps. The cable, which spans over 1200 kms, has landing stations in Karachi, Pakistan and Fujairah, UAE, with a branching unit in Al-Seeb, Oman. The cable will interconnect with other regional cable systems to provide end-to-end connectivity to customers. The goal is to provide high quality international bandwidth services to Pakistani customers at affordable rates. Planned RFS (Ready For Service) date is April 2006.