The Department of Telecommunication Engineering at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), Pakistan, observed World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) on Friday, May 17 2019 at its Jamshoro campus. To this end, an event was organized by the university in collaboration with the IEEE Communication Society Karachi Chapter. WTISD is an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) sanctioned event with the aim to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies can bring to societies and economies. WTISD 2019 was special in that this year’s event celebrated 50 years of annual celebrations of the WTISD.

The theme for WTISD 2019 was set as ‘bridging the standardization gap’ by the ITU with the aim to enhance the technical capacity of developing countries in order to enable them to participate in the development of telecommunications standards and to implement them.

The WTISD 2019 celebration at Mehran University included two technical lectures, which were attended by students and faculty of the university. The first lecture was conducted by Mr. Mehran Memon, who works in the Department of Telecommunication Engineering as an Assistant Professor and teaches courses related to standardization in telecommunications. He talked about the importance of standardization in telecommunications in order to enable modern communication technologies, particularly those based on Internet of Things, while maintaining compatibility with legacy communication technologies. He also highlighted the role of the BSG mission of ITU to bring awareness among developing nations.

Mr. Imad Memon, who works as a Director General (Licensing) at the country’s telecoms regulator, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), delivered the second technical lecture. He shared PTA’s vision of ensuring high quality ICT services in the country while creating an environment based on a fair regulatory regime such that it encourages competition and promotes investment in the telecom sector. Furthermore, he also briefed the audience on PTA’s recent efforts to enable 5G wireless communication in the country and their participation in the development of standards.

Earlier, Prof. Emeritus Dr. Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry, Chairperson of the IEEE Communications Society Karachi Chapter (IEEE ComSoc-Khi), apprised the audience about efforts taken by IEEE ComSoc-Khi to impart knowledge about the latest innovations in telecommunications from the platform of IEEE. He also talked about plans of the IEEE ComSoc-Khi for organizing workshops across the Karachi region on the subjects of Internet-of-Things and Artificial Intelligence, especially from the point of view of telecommunication engineering. Prof. Chowdhry also discussed opportunities for researchers to participate in the development of telecommunication standards from the platform of IEEE. Finally, as part of his closing remarks, Prof. Dr. Faisal Shaikh, Chairman of the Department of Telecommunication Engineering, informed the audience that Mehran University had been organizing events to celebrate WTISD for the past nine years by arranging technical lectures based on the theme for WTISD. He also presented training certificates to participants of the recently concluded workshop on RF Planning and Optimization led by Mr. Yahya Hussain, who works as an RF Engineer with Telenor Pakistan.